LATEST UPDATES Last updated on July 10, 2020
Mercury Public Affairs
For office of the Prime Minister
Hired: April 2019
Contract: $2 million/year
NEW Terminated foreign agent
Alexander Walker, a director in Mercury’s London office, is no longer registered to work for Libya’s Government of National Accord.
Linden Government Solutions
(for Libyan National Army)
Hired: May 2019
NEW Supplemental
(Dec. 1, 2019 – May 30, 2020)
Linden Government Solutions stopped working for the Decision Support Center of Libya on behalf of the Libyan National Army (LNA) on June 19. The firm was paid $275,000 in the six-month period ending May 30. Linden disclosed sending seven emails to — and holding three calls with — Elizabeth Litchfield, the deputy director of the State Department’s office of Maghreb affairs. One of the calls was about an Al-Monitor article (the day before, we published an article on the LNA’s energy and GOP lobbying). Linden also disclosed sending an email to Victoria Coates, then the deputy national security adviser for Middle East and North African Affairs. Consultants Saghar Erica Kasraie and Brandon Wheeler stopped working on Linden’s LNA account on Jan. 1.
Yorktown Solutions
(for Libyan United Democratic Party/Hassan Tatanaki)
Hired: April 2019
2018 fees: $0
NEW Supplemental
(Dec. 1, 2019 – May 31, 2020)
Yorktown Solutions stopped lobbying for Libyan tycoon Hassan Tatanaki’s Libyan United Democratic Party on Dec. 1, 2019.
Gerstman Schwartz
For Libyan Investment Authority
Hired: Aug. 2019
Contract: $150,000 legal retainer
NEW Supplemental (termination)
(Oct. 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020)
Gerstman Schwartz stopped lobbying for the Libyan Investment Authority on March 31. The firm was paid a one-time, $150,000 retainer in August; it disclosed just one meeting in the six-month period ending March 31 — with House Foreign Affairs Committee staffer Ryan Doherty, on Dec. 3. The firm also disclosed arranging an interview between Ali Mohammed Hassen, the chairman and CEO of the authority, and Todd Wood, the conservative Washington Times’ former national security columnist, for Wood’s media venture, Creative Destruction Media (the firm also arranged a phone interview with Wall Street Journal frontier markets editor Dan Keeler that was not published).
Prime Policy Group
For office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Hired: May 2019
2018 fees: pro bono
NEW Supplemental (termination)
(Oct. 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020)
Prime Policy Group stopped working on a pro bono basis for Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq on Feb. 26. In the six-month period ending March 31, Prime Policy Group lobbyists disclosed meetings with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Maghreb and Egypt Henry Wooster and US Embassy in Libya Chargé d'Affaires Natalie Baker (Feb. 12); Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J. (Feb. 11); and Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind. (Feb. 12). Maiteeq also attended the meetings, according to the filing.
Ann Adler, a director at Prime Policy Group, worked on the firm’s pro-bono account for Maiteeq before the firm stopped working for Maiteeq on Feb. 26.
Gotham Government Relations
(for Libya)
Hired: Sept. 2019
Contract: $1.5 million
NEW Supplemental (termination)
(Oct. 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020)
On March 31, Gotham Government Relations — which is owned and controlled by Gerstman Schwartz partners Brad Gerstman and David Schwarz — stopped lobbying for Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord. The firm disclosed receiving $825,000 as a “one-time retainer fee” and paid lobbyist John Cpin $18,000; on March 2, the firm’s lobbyists met with Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J.; House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.; Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.; Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y.; and Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill. The firm’s lobbyists notably discussed Saudi Arabia with Malinowski and Sherman.
Sanitas International
(for Libya Institute for Advanced Studies / Aref Ali Nayed)
Hired: Sept. 2019
NEW Supplemental
(April 1, 2019 – Sept. 30, 2019)
Sanitas International reported no lobbying-related fees or activities for the Libya Institute for Advanced Studies since Sept. 1. A Sanitas representative told Al-Monitor that its work for LIAS, which is run by former Libyan Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Aref Ali Nayed, is pro-bono.
Mayer Brown
(for Tri-Star International Trading / Mustafa Eteer)
Hired: June 2018
2018 fees: $50,000
NEW Supplemental (termination filing)
(Feb. 1, 2019 – July 31, 2019)
Fees: None
Meetings: None
Mayer Brown stopped working for Libya’s Tri-Star International Trading on Feb. 1. Tri-Star, a company owned by Libyan poultry mogul Mustafa Eteer, hired Mayer Brown in June 2018 for $50,000 to provide “advice and assistance in connection with developments in the country of Libya regarding the formation of a democratic government.”