Libya is once again at the center of a storm over corruption after the Attorney General’s Office revealed details of what could be the country’s largest fraud case to date.
Investigators allege that $14 billion vanished through a fraudulent scheme involving forged decrees, raising urgent questions over governance, accountability, and the role of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbaiba’s Government of National Unity.
According to the Attorney General, the case began when intelligence services reported suspicious activity linked to the creation of a fictitious body known as the “Libyan Authority for Strategic Investments.” Prosecutors say the forged decree establishing the body was then used to sign massive agreements worth $14 billion in oil and construction projects that had never been included in the state budget.
One suspect has been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention, while another remains on the run. Authorities insist the investigation will continue, but the scandal has already ignited a fierce political and public backlash.
Saad Ben Sharada, a member of the High Council of State, described the affair as “the largest embezzlement in human history.” He called on oversight bodies to summon both the Attorney General and senior regulators to account for the scandal. “Have they really reached this level of contempt for the people and their money?” he asked in a furious public statement.
Journalist Mohamed Al-Qurj highlighted what the lost $14 billion could have meant for Libya: covering state salaries for more than a year, funding 20 new power stations, building 450,000 housing units, or establishing nearly two dozen modern university hospitals. “What was forged on a single sheet of paper equals ten years of development for Libya,” he wrote.
The scandal comes just days after Libya’s Audit Bureau reported 37 financial violations across state institutions in the first half of 2025, with dozens of cases already referred for investigation. For many Libyans, the revelations confirm that corruption is systemic, not isolated, draining resources and undermining hopes for reconstruction.
