Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Africans are saying Israeli billionaire, Dan Gertler, is the face behind the genocide in Congo.
The Biden administration recently re-imposed sanctions on Israeli businessman Dan Gertler over alleged massive corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s lucrative mining business. Journalist Franz Wild reports on his remarkable rise, and his alliance with former President Joseph Kabila which even saw him being appointed a Congolese diplomat.
When the United States initially imposed sanctions on the mining magnate in 2017, he hired President Donald Trump’s lawyer to get them removed.
The sanctions had been introduced for his allegedly corrupt relationship with DR Congo’s former President Joseph Kabila, helping him make a vast fortune from copper and cobalt deals in the country, something both men deny.
A spokesperson for Mr Gertler has said that the allegations “have been unfairly and wrongly levelled against [him]” adding that “there is not a shred of reliable evidence with which to support them”.
The Paradise Papers confirmed that in 2009 Glencore, the world’s largest mining company, gave the loan to Gertler for his close connections with senior figures in the DRC government, under the condition that it would be repayable if an agreement with the local authorities was not attained. The negotiations were for a mining contract for a company linked to Glencore, the Guardian reported.
Gertler, founder and president of Dan Gertler International, has been active in Congo since 1997, when he started his activities seeking rough diamonds. He has since invested in a variety of fields, including in gold, cobalt, copper and agriculture. Forbes has rated his worth at $1.22 billion, saying he built his fortunes through mining ventures in various African states.
Over two decades, Mr Gertler, still only 47, became one of DR Congo’s most powerful businessmen.
He held sway over which multinational mining companies were lucky enough to mine the country’s extraordinary reserves of copper, cobalt, tin, gold and diamonds. On occasion, Mr Gertler also became a key diplomatic emissary for Mr Kabila.
Hiring Mr Trump’s lawyer Alan Dershowitz proved successful as well.
In its final days, the Trump administration granted Mr Gertler a so-called sanctions licence, which gave him access to his frozen funds and the international banking system for a year.
In March, however, his fortunes reversed with dramatic speed.
“Gertler has used his close friendship with DRC president Joseph Kabila to act as a middleman for mining asset sales in the DRC, requiring some multinational companies to go through Gertler to do business with the Congolese state,” it said.
DRC reportedly lost more than $1.36 billion in revenues in three years as a consequence of underpricing of mining assets sold to offshore companies tied to Gertler, the US alleged.