In 2021, Abdelhakim Baayo made headlines when Libyan media reported that he was the first person to register for the country’s first-ever presidential election.
At the time, Baayo was also a businessman, working as the head of a Spanish company owned by Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA).
The firm, Alhammra Company Spain S.L., was established in Spain in 2015, following sanctions imposed during the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi that caused administrative difficulties for a predecessor company in Gibraltar. The new company’s mandate was broad, and included activities as diverse as procuring cables and wires, and trading in milk and tuna.
By the time Baayo decided to make his presidential run, multiple Libyan official bodies had accused him of misappropriating Alhammra funds, including by using company money to make the down payment on an apartment registered in his own name, leaked documents obtained by OCCRP show.
Abdelhakim Baayo featured on Al-Ain News after announcing his candidacy for the 2021 presidential elections.
Though some of the allegations were made public in an audit report and on social media, the evidence behind them was not. OCCRP has now obtained internal documents — including invoices, emails, and payment notifications — that corroborate many of the key claims.
The files show that Alhammra made a down payment for an apartment in Madrid that Baayo owns. Company money was also used to pay medical or educational expenses that did not fit clearly within Alhammra’s mandate, according to internal company records seen by OCCRP.
Baayo has never faced legal charges in Libya over the claims. Alhammra made similar allegations in a complaint against Baayo in Spain in 2020, but the complaint was withdrawn for reasons that remain unclear.
When reached for comment, Baayo told OCCRP in a response sent through a former colleague that the allegations were false.
The alleged misuse of funds coincided with a period of chaos for Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, which was riven by political divisions and accusations of corruption, theft, and mismanagement after Gaddafi’s fall in 2011.
Tarek Megerisi, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that since Gaddafi’s fall, the amount of fraud at the fund’s subsidiaries had gone “through the roof.”
“Previously, he [Gaddafi] used corruption politically. When he left, his system stayed, but his role as the check was gone,” Megerisi said.
The LIA’s assets have been valued at over $68 billion, held through a dizzying array of more than 550 subsidiaries in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. The fund did not reply to requests for comment.
Allegations Against Baayo
Alhammra was set up in 2015 as a successor to a Gibraltar-based firm called Al Hammra Limited. By that time, freezing orders on Libyan assets had made it difficult for the Gibraltar company to carry out basic administrative tasks, according to company documents.
The new Spain-based company inherited its predecessor’s contracts, specifically to supply materials such as cables and wires for the Libyan state-owned energy company. It also included contracts to supply food items such as tuna and cheese.
The allegations against Baayo started in late 2018, when Alhammra’s parent company and the LIA’s investment arm, the Libyan Foreign Investment Company (LAFICO), sent auditors to review Alhammra’s documents and financial statements for the previous three years.
Subsequently, LAFICO wrote a letter to the attorney general accusing Baayo of committing “several acts that caused serious damage to the company, both materially and morally,” and acting in a way that “exposed the parent company’s funds to squandering.”
Six officials on a committee created by LAFICO recommended in a report that Baayo be referred to an investigation committee, but it is not clear if that ever happened. Baayo denied the allegations at the time, according to an internal report by LAFICO based on a meeting with him. LAFICO did not respond to requests for comment.
The Libyan Audit Bureau, the country’s state auditor, claimed in its 2020 annual report that Baayo had “deliberately concealed the documents revealing his transgressions and manipulations,” and accused him of hiding the company’s computers, deleting emails, and concealing cash withdrawals from a company bank account.
Baayo told OCCRP these allegations were false.
In November 2020, Alhammra, by then under a new manager, brought a complaint against Baayo in Spain, but the case was later dropped after the complaint was withdrawn by the plaintiffs, a Madrid court told OCCRP.
When contacted by reporters, Baayo answered that “four complaints” against him had been adjudicated by the Spanish judiciary and dismissed for lack of evidence.
Purchase of Madrid Apartment
In the same annual report, the Libyan Audit Bureau flagged further unexplained payments at Alhammra, including company money that had been used to make a down payment for an apartment in Madrid.
