While on holiday on the French Riviera, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of Libya’s dictator Muammar Qaddafi, gave an interview to the international edition of Newsweek about the recent French-brokered deal to free five Bulgarian nuns and one Palestinian doctor from Libya’s death row.

In the interview, Qaddafi’s son candidly conceded that Libya had blackmailed Europe. He then proceeded to divulge details of the alleged deal—including $414 million to renew a hospital, $552 million for a compensation fund for the families of the alleged victims of the nurses, arms sales, and a nuclear cooperation agreement. According to the Lebanese English-language paper The Daily Star, Saif al-Islam was then asked from where the monies came. Pleading ignorance, he reportedly answered that “the French managed to bring money in order to pay the families,” but that he did not know the origin of the funds (though the rumor, according to Newsweek, is that the Qataris picked up the tab). “It’s not our business to ask where the money [came] from” said the young Qaddafi. As the Romans used to say, pecunia non olet.