That's hopefully what the Lybian Investment Authority (LIA) learned from its "misadventure" with Goldman Sachs. In Qaddafi's days, back in 2008, the LIA lost $1.2 Bln in plain vanilla option trades it did with Goldman. That's right 1.2 Bln up in smoke after it bought calls on 6 stocks ( Citi, EDF,Santander, Allianz ENI and Unicredit). Obviously a dumb trade. Now Lybia is suing Goldman over the option trades gone wrong. Here is the funny part : the LIA really trusted the Goldman trader who pushed the trades. Goldman had given an internship to the brother of a high ranked executive at the LIA (read more on the "internship programs" at the big banks in EM countries :http://buy-point.blogspot.ch/2014/01/corruption-en-chine-les-grandes-banques.html) and the trader regularly offered gifts to the LIA team, the LIA guys particularly enjoyed getting aftershaves and chocolates.Bloomberg has an entertaining and enlightening piece on how things work in the high stake world of sovereign funds.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-30/how-much-did-goldman-rip-libya-off-.html
