Libya rejected offers to invest with Bernie Madoff, Allen Stanford: WikiLeaks

London, Feb 24(ANI): Libya's Moammar al-Gadhafi regime had turned down offers from American Ponzi schemers Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford, according to classified US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

A cable revealed that the head of Libya's Investment Authority, Mohamed Layas, had told Gene Cretz, the US ambassador in Tripoli, in a January 2010 meeting that the LIA had been approached separately by both Madoff and Stanford about potential investments in the past.

Layas said that Stanford had approached the LIA "in the middle of his crisis" and offered a seven to eight percent share in his scheme, but "we did not accept".

Layas also said that the LIA was at the time entangled in a legal battle with Lehman Brothers "due to a major investment that was mismanaged".

In 2009, Madoff was convicted and sentenced to 150 years in prison for the nearly 70 billion dollars fraud scam, while Stanford is currently in jail and awaiting trial for allegedly bilking his investors out of eight billion dollars.

The 60-year-old faces up to 375 years in jail if convicted. (ANI)