A senior executive with the Libyan Investment Authority, the $70 billion fund used to invest the country's oil money abroad, said Mr Blair was one of three prominent western businessmen who regularly dealt with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former leader.
Saif al-Islam and his close aides oversaw the activities of the fund, and often directed its officials on where they should make its investments, he said.
The executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials were told the "ideas" they were ordered to pursue came from Mr Blair as well as one other British businessman and a former American diplomat.
"Tony Blair's visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan," he said.
He said that unlike some other deals - notably some investments run by the US bank Goldman Sachs - JP Morgan's had never turned "bad".
But he added: "Saif and his father played these people like musical chairs. At the end the reputation of the LIA was really damaged because of these interventions." » | Richard Spencer, Tripoli, Heidi Blake and Jon Swaine in New York | Sunday, September 18, 2011
