Bangladesh, Nov. 24 -- When Abdelhakim Baayo registered to run in Libyas first planned presidential election in 2021, he presented himself as a businessman eager to help steer the country out of years of war, political chaos, and economic breakdown. At the time, Libyans knew him mainly as the first candidate to formally announce his run – a symbolic step in a hopeful but uncertain political process.

Yet even as Baayo made headlines for stepping into the national political spotlight, multiple Libyan institutions were privately accusing him of serious financial misconduct. He was, at the time, managing a Spanish subsidiary of Libyas sovereign wealth fund – a company called Alhammra Company Spain S.L. – and internal record...