SHANNON, IRELAND — The Bush administration has begun transferring more than $500 million in Libyan compensation money to the families of American victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
A U.S. official says $504 million of $536 million to be distributed to the families was moved from the Treasury to a private account administered by their lawyers on Friday. The money comes from a $1.5 billion fund for U.S. victims of Libyan-linked terrorism that Libya finished paying into last month.
The official says the remaining Lockerbie cash will be transferred in the coming days, along with $283 million for the U.S. victims of a 1986 attack on a Berlin disco. The remainder of the settlement money will go to settle claims for other deaths, injuries and damage caused by Libyan agents in the 1980s.
