The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) was attempting to claw back the $1.2 billion from the Wall Street giant in relation to nine equity derivatives investments carried out in 2008, which turned out to be worthless. In the trial, which ran for seven weeks in London's High Court in the summer, the LIA argued that Goldman exercised "undue influence" and "unconscionable bargaining" to get it to enter the trades, asserting that the terms of the transactions were "overreaching and oppressive", as defined by English law. It heard claims that Haitem Zarti, the brother of an LIA executive who previously run nothing more substantial than a video club, was flown business class to Dubai and out up at the five star Ritz Carlton hotel in Dubai to attend a Goldman conference and he was later offered a prestigious 11-month internship at Goldman in the bank’s hope that he would one day become an important LIA official, the court heard in the trial.
Judge Vivien Rose of London's High Court, finds in favor of Goldman Sachs, that the bank is not liable for the failure of highly speculative trades made by the sovereign wealth fund of Libya.