The United Nations’ Panel of Experts on Libya is recommending that the UN Security Council impose sanctions on Ahmed Gadalla, a globe-trotting Libyan financier who is a permanent resident of Canada.
Mr. Gadalla, 46, and two of his foreign-based companies are on a list of individuals and entities accused of violating the UN arms embargo against Libya, according to the panel’s 2026 final report to the UN Security Council.
Imposed in 2011, the UN arms embargo prohibits the transfer of military equipment, such as weapons and armoured vehicles, to Libya, save for certain exceptions.
Ahmed Gadalla is a Libyan businessman with a passport from the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. He’s also a permanent resident of Canada.
The allegations made by the UN panel have not been tested by any independent judicial authority and, as such, are not binding in any way.
Mr. Gadalla denies all wrongdoing and is engaged in a continuing dialogue with the UN panel, according to his Canadian lawyer.
“I have conducted my business lawfully and will continue to do so,” Mr. Gadalla said in a statement to The Globe and Mail.
The UN panel alleges that Mr. Gadalla breached the arms embargo through his shipping interests, including a delivery of more than 200 armoured vehicles to Libya, and used his companies to smuggle fuel out of the North African country.
Its report recommends the Security Council consider imposing sanctions on all persons, entities and ships deemed to have violated the UN arms embargo or engaged in energy trafficking to support militias or criminal groups in Libya.
Mr. Gadalla is one of dozens of parties that committed violations, according to the panel’s report.
The Security Council’s sanctions committee has not yet made a determination about the panel’s recommendation.
Separately, The Sentry, a U.S. investigative and policy organization, published its own report in April that urges the UN, Canada, the United States, Britain and the European Union to impose targeted sanctions on Mr. Gadalla, his companies and associates using their respective Magnitsky-style regimes. Canada’s Sergei Magnitsky Law, also called the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, enables Ottawa to impose measures such as asset freezes and travel bans against foreign nationals deemed responsible for, or complicit with, human-rights violations and corruption.
The calls for sanctions come at a critical time for Canada, which is facing domestic and international criticism over its struggles to enforce economic restrictions against designated individuals, groups and businesses.
Mr. Gadalla, who was born in Libya and obtained a visa to enter Canada in 2016, has not been charged with any crime. The allegations contained in both reports have not been tested in court.
In response to The Globe’s detailed questions about the allegations contained in the reports, Mr. Gadalla, who is chairman and owner of Alushibe Holding Group, a Dubai-based conglomerate, sent a statement through his lawyer. “I utterly reject and deny the accusations made against me by The Sentry. My lawyers are challenging those allegations,” Mr. Gadalla said in the e-mailed statement. “I also refute the claims made about me in the UN Panel of Experts report.”
His Canadian lawyer, Peter Downard of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, told The Globe in April that Mr. Gadalla has directly engaged with the UN panel through his U.S. attorney and continues to do so.
“UN panels are investigative bodies only. They do not adjudicate facts, determine liability, or impose sanctions,” Mr. Downard wrote in a subsequent letter dated May 12. “The UN has not made any determination to designate Mr. Gadalla or any of his businesses. There is no valid basis for any such designation.”
Mr. Gadalla and a Turkish company's chairman sign a deal in 2024 for a steel plant in Benghazi.Tosyalı Holding
UN representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“To protect the integrity of Canada’s sanctions regime, Canada does not comment on measures that may be under consideration or on potential future actions,” stated Charlotte MacLeod, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada.
The Canadian government, she added, imposed sanctions against Libya in 2011 under the United Nations Act and the Special Economic Measures Act.
“Canada maintains a rigorous due diligence process to evaluate possible cases of human rights violations, corruption, or other circumstances that may warrant use of sanctions,” Ms. MacLeod added.
Mr. Downard declined to say whether Mr. Gadalla remains a permanent resident of Canada or if he obtained citizenship.
When queried about Mr. Gadalla’s status in Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it cannot comment on individual cases owing to privacy legislation.
On Benghazi's Algeria Street, a storefront of Mr. Gadalla’s Alushibe Holding Group sits beside a branch of the Bank of Commerce and Development. Mr. Gadalla only owns a small stake in that lender, according to his lawyer.Courtesy of The Sentry
Mr. Gadalla owns a unit at this luxury condo complex in Toronto, according to property records. He purchased it for $5.12-million in 2023.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Gadalla, who is also a Dubai resident, is a dual national of Libya and Saint Kitts and Nevis, according to both the UN and Sentry reports.
The UN panel’s report says Mr. Gadalla is also known as Ahmed Abrahem Ahmed Gadalla, Ahmed Alushibe and Ahmed Jadallah. He uses the name Ahmed al-Aashibi as well, according to The Sentry.
None of his various names are listed in the Consolidated Canadian Autonomous Sanctions List or the UN Security Council Consolidated List.
The UN panel found that Mr. Gadalla has continued to influence politics and business in his birth country.
Libya has essentially become divided after its former leader, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, was ousted and killed in 2011. Rival regimes rule its eastern and western regions.
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the head of Libya’s eastern forces, and his son, Saddam Haftar, largely control the country’s east. Its western region is ruled by the Tripoli-based transitional government of Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah.
The UN panel, which reports to the Security Council, is responsible for probing violations of various restrictions. Its investigation found that Libya’s eastern and western regimes implemented a “mutually beneficial arms procurement pact” in 2022 to circumvent the UN arms embargo.
That pact allowed materials, such as armoured vehicles, to be jointly acquired by the eastern and western regimes under the guise of Mr. al-Dbeibah’s government. The report further stated that “armed groups across Libya” utilized a shipping line controlled by Mr. Gadalla.
As such, Mr. Gadalla, along with his foreign-based companies, Al Fooz Al Qadem Shipping Ltd. (Marshall Islands) and UDS Shipping Services LLC (United Arab Emirates), were found to be “in violation of and/or noncompliant with the arms embargo,” the UN panel’s report said.
The panel cited an example involving at least 240 vehicles subject to the arms embargo that were transported to Libya by Panama-flagged ship MV Aya 1, later renamed Zulfa 1.
MV Aya 1 is owned by UDS Shipping Services and operated by Al Fooz Al Qadem Shipping. Mr. Gadalla controls both businesses through Alushibe Group, according to the UN panel’s report.
On July 18, 2025, the MV Aya 1 was intercepted en route to Libya from the UAE by Operation IRINI, the EU’s military operation in the Mediterranean that enforces the UN arms embargo on Libya.
The EU military operation identified “missing cargo documentation” and inspected six of the ship’s 332 containers. It found 12 militarized vehicles.
“Operation IRINI contacted the carrier, which is ultimately controlled by Ahmed Alushibe, regarding the cargo documentation and informed the Libyan Ministry of Defence of the matter,” the report said.
Libya’s Ministry of Defence later claimed to be the intended recipient of 154 of the vehicles on board the ship. It provided “an end-user certificate” dated May 6, 2025, and signed by Prime Minister al-Dbeibah. Defence officials further asserted the UN Security Council committee had granted them an exemption to the arms embargo for the use of the armoured vehicles, the report said.
However, the UN panel later determined the exemption request did not cover the actual intended recipients of the armoured vehicles and that the end-user certificate was “technically invalid.”
The panel’s report also concluded the MV Aya 1 ship was “complicit” in the illicit exports of refined petroleum from Tubruq and Benghazi to the UAE. That included “a transfer of at least 22 containers with flexi-tanks filled with heavy fuel oil.”
Mr. Gadalla’s lawyer, Mr. Downard, did not provide detailed comments about these allegations, but he broadly refuted them.
He wrote that “Mr. Gadalla is a businessman engaged in legitimate commercial activities across the Gulf region and Libya.”
The UN panel report further claims that Mr. Gadalla is supported by the younger Mr. Haftar, enabling him to control several banks in Libya.
It also accuses Mr. Gadalla of using the banking sector with the backing of armed groups “to fraudulently obtain letters of credit” from the Central Bank of Libya. A letter of credit is a financial instrument issued by a bank that guarantees a forthcoming payment.
The UN report says attempts to investigate the letters of credit were stymied when an Alushibe-owned bank in Benghazi “actively blocked” the initiatives.
Mr. Gadalla resold foreign currency obtained through the letters of credit “at black market rates in Libya,” allowing him to amass a “significant financial position” in Libyan dinars, the UN report alleged.
Mr. Downard denied the allegations.
“Mr. Gadalla has had only limited contact with Saddam Haftar, consistent with Mr. Gadalla’s status as a prominent businessman in the region,” Mr. Downard wrote in his May letter, adding his client has never met the elder Mr. Haftar.
He also said that Mr. Gadalla has no business dealings with either the father or the son.
In April, Mr. Downard denied that his client controls various financial institutions in Libya, noting Mr. Gadalla has “small shareholdings” in Wahda Bank and the Bank of Commerce and Development.
“He is in no position to exercise control over any of those banks,” Mr. Downard wrote, adding that allegations of letter-of-credit fraud are false.
The UN panel also alleged Mr. Gadalla subsequently used the proceeds from the alleged financial fraud to purchase “shipments of diverted fuel from armed group actors” operating in both Libya’s eastern and western regions.
“With their support, and his maritime transport capabilities, he facilitated the illicit export of this fuel from Libya, particularly through ports under the control of armed groups, and resold it for profit,” the report alleges. “These activities enabled Alushibe to accumulate substantial financial gains and expand his influence.”
Mr. Downard called the UN panel’s report “a one-sided story.”
“It is a fact that Mr. Gadalla’s side of numerous matters was not heard by the UN panel, and thus not taken into account by it, in the panel’s preparation of the Panel Report,” he wrote.
Mr. Gadalla’s “substantive engagement with the panel on numerous matters” only began on March 30, according to Mr. Downard.
The UN panel’s report, which is dated March 24, was made public in April.
“As of the date of the Panel Report the panel did not have the benefit of clear documentary evidence that Mr. Gadalla has since provided to it,” Mr. Downard said. “Mr. Gadalla’s engagement with the panel continues.”
While preparing its 299-page report, the UN panel consulted with various parties, including Canadian officials and the RCMP.
Italian authorities confiscate military material bound for Libya in July, 2024. Drone parts were hidden inside six containers.Facebook post by Port of Gioia Tauro, via the Sentry
The Sentry report, meanwhile, alleges Mr. Gadalla enabled Mr. Haftar’s arms smuggling, including through a Canada-based criminal plot disrupted by the RCMP in 2024.
The operation allegedly involved the illegal sale of Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya. The RCMP investigation resulted in criminal charges against two former employees of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency in Montreal.
(On March 12, 2026, the prosecution withdrew its accusations against one of the individuals. The other remains the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, which is an international alert for police to locate a wanted person. It is not an arrest warrant.)
The RCMP previously said the plot was an apparent violation of the UN arms embargo on Libya.
Mr. Gadalla was not charged in the case. The Sentry, however, said it reviewed shipping information linking him to the matter.
“Notably, one of Gadalla’s Dubai‑registered companies paid for the sea transport of the drones, tying him to the operation," the report alleges.
The Sentry cites its review of documents associated with six containers from China in two ships, MSC Arina and MSC Apolline. The documents were provided on a consultative basis by Italian Magistrate Emanuele Crescenti, in Palmi, Italy, in July of 2025.
When asked if Mr. Gadalla was being investigated for his alleged connections to the drone scandal, RCMP spokesperson Marie-Eve Breton said the federal police force does not comment on potential or continuing investigations. She also declined to comment on the UN panel’s allegations.
“Mr. Gadalla has had no involvement whatsoever in ‘transnational arms smuggling’ or the ‘illegal sale of Chinese drones’ to Khalifa Haftar,” stated Mr. Downard on April 7.
Mr. Downard has also repeatedly said The Sentry never contacted Mr. Gadalla before publishing its report.
The Sentry said its team sent Mr. Gadalla e-mails requesting comment on “a comprehensive series of questions” six weeks before the publication and invited him to respond to its findings for inclusion in the report.
“Our delivery and read-receipt system shows that our emails were opened. However, Mr. Gadalla never responded,” wrote spokesperson Kria Sakakeeny in an e-mail.
“Thus, we are confident that Mr. Gadalla received our questions, read them, and chose not to respond. Accordingly, we believe that we fulfilled our obligations and that Mr. Gadalla was given ample opportunity to offer his version of events.”
Mr. Gadalla is also linked to several businesses in other countries, including Libya, Malta, Britain and Canada.
The Sentry report says his commercial interests span sectors that include energy, steel, telecom, aviation, shipping and cement. Among his other corporate titles, he is chairman of Libya United Steel Company for Iron and Steel Industry.
He is also listed as a director and officer (his roles include president, secretary and treasurer) of a Toronto-based company, ANAMA INC., according to an Ontario corporate profile report.
The company’s website states its services include building materials, seafood, auto accessories, cosmetics, garments, foodstuffs and logistics services. It has operations in Canada, Libya, Turkey, Sri Lanka and Egypt.
Mr. Gadalla is a graduate of Indiana University Southeast and a small Canadian school called International Business University in Toronto. He moved to Dubai in 2008. In 2015, he applied to the Quebec Investor Program, according to The Sentry report and documents filed in the Federal Court of Canada.
On his application form, he stated that he owned a property at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. In 2016, he received the Certificat du Sélection du Québec and applied to become a permanent resident.
After lengthy delays, he filed an application for judicial review of his case with the Federal Court in 2021. In September of that year, Mr. Gadalla received a letter from immigration officials asking him to pay “the Right of Permanent Residence fee.”
In March, 2023, Mr. Gadalla purchased a luxury condo in Toronto’s upscale Yorkville neighbourhood for $5.12-million, according to property records.
He is also listed as a 2024-25 donor to the Sinai Health Foundation in the $25,000-to-$49,999 gift category.
With reports from Stephanie Chambers