Libya sought to invest in a major U.S. bank to form a strategic partnership at the height of the credit crisis in 2008 which engulfed the financial sector, a confidential diplomatic cable shows. The cable dated July 21 2008, obtained by WikiLeaks, reveals the depth of oil-rich Libya's interest in the U.S. financial sector at a time when banks around the world reeled from losses in the deteriorating credit market. It details operations of the Libyan Foreign Bank, which is owned by the country's central bank, based on meetings between the U.S. embassy staff in Tripoli and Mohammed Abdullah Bayt Almal, LFB chairman and former finance minister. It also shows how Libya's sovereign wealth fund and other institutions tried to sell off U.S. assets.
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