Gradi Koko and Navy Malela, auditors at a Democratic Republic of Congo bank, had to flee to Europe after exposing cash deposits worth millions by associates of Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, who was at the time subject to international sanctions. Gertler's lawyer: Accusations are a 'deliberate weave of empty allegations'
Tough Sanctions, Then a Mysterious Last-Minute Turnabout
The Treasury Department slapped sanctions on the Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler in 2017 for corruption in Africa. In Donald Trump’s final days in office, they were rolled back with no explanation.
Dan Gertler, an Israeli billionaire, at an open-pit mining operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The sanctions rollback has left the Biden administration scrambling to determine whether it can be reversed.Credit.Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Feb. 21, 2021
WASHINGTON In early December, an Israeli billionaire named Dan Gertler made an unusual request to the Treasury Department.
A mining magnate who had been accused for years of corruption in deals he struck with leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mr. Gertler had been slapped with stiff sanctions by the Trump administration in 2017, effectively cutting off his access to the international banking system and freezing money held in U.S. banks.
Until now, the mainstream U.S. media, (with the honorable exception of
Bloomberg Business), has not paid enough attention to Dan Gertler, the corrupt Israeli businessman who has drained over $1 billion from the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the most exploited nations on earth.
That mainstream blackout is starting to end. The front page of today’s
New York Times has a long, valuable investigative report that explains how days before the end of Donald Trump’s term, U.S. Treasury Department economic sanctions that had hampered Gertler were mysteriously lifted. The report shows how celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, along with “high-powered connections in Israel,” helped get the stiff sanctions rolled back for a year, which gave Gertler “access to money frozen in U.S. banks and allowed him once again to do business with financial institutions worldwide.”
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Feb. 11, 2021
As of mid-week, over 5,200 Israelis had died of COVID-19, more than 3.6 million Israelis had been vaccinated, and the prime minister of Israel was still waiting for a call from the new president of the United States.
On Monday, police officers, Border Police, Shin Bet agents and members of the court security service were deployed outside the Jerusalem District Court, where Benjamin Netanyahu was attending the second hearing in his corruption trial. Roadblocks, police vans, explosives detection dogs, a helicopter hovering above. This was no circus – it was a war zone.
It looked as though half the security and policing forces of the State of Israel were concentrated in the streets around the courthouse on Saladin Street in East Jerusalem. If the Jordanian army had wanted to make a move on Israel, all it would have had to do was bypass the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and within two hours it would have been on Frishman Beach in Tel Aviv.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pleaded not guilty at the resumption of his corruption trial in Jerusalem. Wearing a black mask, Netanyahu on Monday