Col. Muammar Gaddafi was a brutal dictator, but on The CW show Devils his history is reinvented. It suggests he may not have been the one deciding to commit mass murder, and that bankers were calling the shots instead.
The third episode of Devils on October 21 mirrors reality by showing news reports of a mass grave in Tripoli, Libya and weaves it into a fictional, financial conspiracy plot. Devils points the finger at financiers for Gaddafi’s killings.
Sofia, a Subterranea journalist (think Wikileaks but solely focused on exposing banking and finance), has been trying to turn New York London Investment Bank (NYL) head of trading Massimo Ruggero into a source of information about his bank. The death of his rival, and then his wife, have left Massimo furious and believing one or both of them were murdered because of the bank.
While meeting at his apartment Sofia asks, “What if I told you it wasn't Gaddafi's decision to slaughter these people?”
Massimo: “No? Then whose was it?”
Sofia: “The LIA is Libya's sovereign fund — Gaddafi's bank account. We've intercepted hundreds of their emails. A Libyan finance executive called Samir el-Maghrabi is suspected of being corrupted by [dramatic pause] New York London Investment Bank. They're setting up some kind of deal.”
Massimo: “What kind of deal?”
Sofia: “We don't know yet, but we do know the name of the person el-Maghrabi deals with. Your boss: Dominic Morgan.”
Massimo: “Dominic's many things, but a warlord may be stretching it.”
He remains skeptical until she shows him emails talking about a meeting between Dominic and el-Maghrabi. Together they scheme to have her infiltrate the event as an escort, where she photographs the Libyan banker at a private event NYL set up in London.
She leaks the photos to The Guardian resulting in huge losses and bad publicity for NYL. A woman named Margaret calls Dominic and says “We’re not happy about this” and “People connecting us with Gaddafi's money would be suboptimum.”
He promises to take care of it and holds a press conference where he claims his bank wasn’t supporting Gaddafi — rather he was working with a “courageous executive” to ensure a free Libya and make sure there are funds for reconstruction when the war ends.
