Dan Gertler

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Dan Gertler  (born December 1973 ) is an Israeli billionaire and businessman in the diamond and extractive industries with assets of approximately 1.22 billion US dollars ( Forbes , as of 2017).

He maintains good contacts with the authoritarian regime of Joseph Kabila in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and negotiated billions in mining deals for the world's largest commodity traders, such as the Swiss company Glencore . The Paradise Papers show that his business practice included paying bribes to the regime; and the Panama Papers traced some of its business through its Mossack Fonseca registered offshore firms.

On December 21, 2017, the United States government decreed under the Magnitsky Act that Gertler's assets are among those assets located in the United States that must be completely frozen due to corruption and human rights violations .

Life

Dan Gertler comes from one of the most famous families in the diamond trade in Israel. His grandfather was the entrepreneur Moshe Schnitzer .

In 1997 he went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has since established close contacts with the local government. The Congolese parts of the Copperbelt have rich deposits of copper and cobalt ores .

In 2001 the United Nations reported that Gertler had negotiated a deal that would allow him to take over the diamond market in the Congo. In return, the President of the Congo received US $ 20 million for the purchase of weapons.

In 2012, Gertler stated in an interview with Bloomberg Markets that he had earned a Nobel Prize for his "development aid" in the Congo.

In 2013, the Africa Progress Panel estimated that Congo lost $ 1.3 billion in a three-year period alone from selling below-value mining operations to Gertler-affiliated companies.

Glencore stores in the Congo

The Swiss company Glencore operates several mines in the Congo through affiliated companies. The state-owned Congolese mining company has to give its formal approval to the mining. Glencore acquired the Mutanda and Katanga mines in February 2017 for USD 960 million. Gertler received $ 534 million pre-tax for his mediation.

Glencore hired Gertler as chief negotiator when negotiations with the Congolese state mining company stalled. His mission was kept secret. In 2009 Gertler received a loan of 45 million USD from Glencore with the clause that the money could be reclaimed immediately if the mining contract with a company belonging to Glencore in the Congo is not signed within 3 months. After the business of Glencore in the desperately poor Congo was publicly discussed, Glencore released Gertler from his duties.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dan Gertler . In: Forbes . ( forbes.com [accessed December 25, 2017]).
  2. ↑ a b Ben Doherty, Oliver Zihlmann: Revealed: Glencore's secret loan to secure DRC mining rights . In: The Guardian . November 5, 2017, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed November 6, 2017]).
  3. ^ Donald Trump: Executive Order Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption . Whitehouse.gov . December 21, 2017.
  4. ↑ Issuance of Global Magnitsky Executive Order; Global Magnitsky Designations . United States Department of the Treasury . December 21, 2017.
  5. ^ A b c Ben Doherty: Everything you need to know about Glencore, Dan Gertler and their interest in DRC . In: The Guardian . November 5, 2017, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed November 6, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Bloomberg : Gertler Earns Billions as Mine Deals Leave Congo Poorest . December 5, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Gertler, Dan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli diamond dealer and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH December 1973