Italian police on Thursday seized as two million euros (2.34 million dollars) from a Libyan man who acted as a frontman for one of the sons of former Libyan dictator Moamer Gaddafi,
In 2010, Mutassim Gaddafi, the fourth son of the dictator, bought two luxury flats, a garage and a cellar in Rome for 5.5 million euros, using a frontman to elude international sanctions and asset freezes on the Gaddafi clan, police said.
Mutassim died in 2011, and the frontman – whom the Guardia di Finanza identified only via his initials BAAA – sold the properties five years later for a cut price of 2.5 million euros.
This was because he felt that authorities were closing in on him.
Italian police said the man managed to smuggle about 500,000 euros out of Italy, while the remaining two million euros was seized and frozen, while BAAA was accused of false registration of assets and money laundering.
Gaddafi ruled Libya from 1969 to 2011, when he was toppled and killed in an armed revolt backed by NATO airstrikes.
Since then, the country has been stricken by militia infighting and has become a major transit route for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.
