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US reinstates sanctions on ‘corrupt’ Israeli billionaire

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After pressure from Democratic lawmakers, Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen revoked the Trump-issued license.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Cancelling a decision made by former president Donald Trump during his final days in office, the U.S. government announced Monday that it was revoking a license which eased sanctions on Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said granting Gertler the license was “inconsistent with America’s strong foreign policy interests in combating corruption around the world.”

Gertler was hit with U.S. Treasury sanctions in December 2017 and June 2018, after he allegedly used his friendship with Democratic Republic of Congo’s former president, Joseph Kabila, to obtain mining rights in the central African nation.

The sanctions, which were issued under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, froze all of Gertler’s U.S. assets and prohibited him from doing business with U.S. banks, investors, companies, or individuals.

Born into a well-established family of Israeli diamond traders, Gertler bought his first mine in the DRC in 1997.

His investment in the country began to raise eyebrows when he obtained exclusive purchasing rights “for all diamonds produced in territory under the control of the Congolese Government” between September 2000 and April 2001.

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Gertler paid Kabila $20 million for the rights.

International watchdog groups and local NGOs decried the deal, complaining that Gertler’s deal cheated the Congolese people out of millions in potential tax revenues.

In January 2021, Trump eased some of the sanctions on Gertler via a special license. While his businesses remained on the sanctions list, he was able to access some of his previously frozen U.S. assets.

After pressure from Democratic lawmakers, Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen revoked the Trump-issued license.

His attorney, Alan Dershowitz, told Bloomberg that the decision to reimpose the sanctions was “made with no opportunity for Mr. Gertler to present evidence that he has been totally in compliance with all the OFAC requirements and that he has done everything absolutely properly under the license.”

“We are now considering our options,” Dershowitz said.