Trump’s Highest Bidder, Gertler? Sanctions Reprieve Lifted – Gertler, Magnitsky, DRC

Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler (Screen capture YouTube)

Dan Gertler and the Magnitsky Sanctions, Loopholes, State Sanctioned Violations, Trump, Guiliani and Billions

We have written and opined at great lengths about Dan Gertler, the mining tycoon sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act sanctions and the final gift from President Trump to Gertler, a lifting of those sanctions. Make no mistake, that lifting was unsurprising when coupled with the Guliani Ukraine affair. To those of us who followed the ever-changing political landscape in the DRC, the US’s unbridled support of an otherwise undemocratic election in the DRC, the securities’ firms that played a role in the movement of information, and the tail numbers of Gertler’s planes coupled with the travels of Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph Guiliani, this political-financial network was foreseeable. It was our opinion then and now, that Guiliani was paid for his liaison services, which were blessed through a web of quasi-legitimate securities’ firms. Beyond that, in what capacity Guiliani was traveling to the Ukraine fairly regularly, and his labyrinthine ties to Ukraine at that time remain the subject of debate.

We have opined about the various loopholes and veritable crawl spaces that have allowed Gertler access to millions, if not billions of dollars, otherwise unavailable under the Magnitsky Sanctions Regime. Some of this money was allegedly owed to Gertler by Glencore. The “praise” bestowed upon Gertler by foreign diplomats is almost embarrassing, but may have been required to get cooperating countries on board with the payment scheme. The workaround was craftily organized by funneling money through a payment system of mazes to Gertler via a series of Euro-based workarounds which required the assistance of the Swiss banking network and US Government intervention. It is unlikely the Swiss would have been involved absent a very public statement by the US. It is our opinion that the loopholes were identified and manipulated by President Trump and, in our opinion, Rudolph Guiliani, Paul Manaford and others within the Trump orbit.

Whether or not we have it all perfectly figured out remains a job for those with far higher pay grades.

While Gertler claims all of his actions in the DRC have been above-board, we think that depends upon whose morality and ethics one is using as the exemplar upon which all else is measured. As we see the world, Gertler’s almost unforgivable use of underpaid members of the DRC to afford him unquantifiable wealth is not a paragon of the divine intervention of his religious system of beliefs. Moreover, Gertler’s willingness to manipulate financial systems such that banks, investment companies and frankly heads of states and countries made his acquisition of wealth all possible, is all the more unsettling.

Washington, DC, Free and Fair Elections, the DRC, Dan Gertler, Mer, Magnitsky and Guiliani…

Flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Mer, Kabila, the Congo, Dan Gertler and… Rudi Guiliani… and then There’s Magnitsky

This opinion is written following a brillliant article that came out in Buzzfeed on December 30, 2020 and should be read in the context of that article entitled:

A Secretive Company Needed To Convince Washington That Congo’s Election Would Be “Free And Fair.” It Found A Friendly Ear Among Trump Allies.

A BuzzFeed News investigation, based on thousands of pages of documents and more than 100 interviews in the US, Congo, and Europe, provides a first-ever look inside Mer’s aggressive campaign to influence the Trump administration and serve Kabila’s interests. It shows how such efforts can shape foreign policy in ways unbeknownst to both the public and senior government officials, through meetings and phone calls that leave few witnesses and little trace of the private influences involved.

In this case, the most powerful nation in the world swept aside authoritarian abuses — even when many of its own top diplomats thought such a decision flew in the face of US interests.

Despite all the promises that Kabila’s proxies made in Washington that year, Congo’s election, ultimately held in December 2018, was neither free nor fair. Citing voting data that leaked after the election, international observers said that it was brazenly rigged in favor of a candidate with whom Kabila had struck a secret power-sharing deal. Kabila would officially step down, but he would still command Congo’s security forces, his allies would still hold top Cabinet positions, and his party would still wield a legislative majority.

Within days of the election, the leaked voting data sparked protests across Congo. Heads of state in Europe and Africa called for an international investigation. The US echoed the denunciation.

Mer’s efforts in Washington looked doomed.

But a month after the election, in January 2019, the Trump administration suddenly dropped its objections and instead praised “Kabila’s commitment to becoming the first president in DRC history to cede power peacefully through an electoral process.” The decision to reverse course came from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, BuzzFeed News has learned. But it shocked veteran diplomats and rank-and-file State Department officials who had crafted the initial policy. And it put an end to the international coalition that was forming to examine the election.

Read the Buzzfeed article in its entirety here.

Let me refresh your memory, on November 7, 2019, in a follow up to an article I posted on November 6, 2019, I published an opinion piece entitled “Dan Gertler and the OFAC Sanctions – Someone Had to Have Been Negotiating with Glencore” wherein I corrected the record as to dates from the previously posted article and presented my theories. The relevant corrected dates of that article, however, only serve to substantiate my theory, that there were a series of well-timed announcements, one corresponding though seemingly unconnected to the other and all subtly buried in a haze of smoke and mirrors. Then came the pandemic and any modicum of an investigation into the activities of the relevant players fell to the wayside.

I maintain that there were lobbyists behind the scenes negotiating on Gertler’s behalf with respect to the Magnitsky Act Sanctions and corresponding payments from Glencore allegedly due to Gertler. Gertler’s proven connection to Kabila providing a backdrop. In 2019 I did not complicate matters, however, by adding in the Congo/Glencore connection because I had fully intended to fill in that piece at some future date. Suffice it to say that the sanctions were imposed upon Dan Gertler (and his related companies) by the United States for his mining activities and human rights abuses in the Congo. While both the US, for formality’s sake, and Gertler and his associates now deny the allegations of abuse that triggered the imposition of the sanctions, The Africa Report, Global Witness and Bloomberg to name a few, have made direct and undeniable connections between Gertler and those abuses. They have also directly connected Gertler to Kabila and Kabila to Gertler. While they have not necessarily tied Gertler to Kabila’s reelection, or rather re-positioning of power, the connection is largely undeniable; and we maintain the whole show was being negotiated by Guiliani and/or his associates and Mer.

Dan Gertler Speaks, Sharing with the Congolese People? Really…. Part I.

#RDC #Corruption: Accusé par la justice américaine d’avoir corrompu des officiels congolais, dont Joseph Kabila, l’israélien Dan Gertler a adressé un message enregistré aux Congolais. Extrait pic.twitter.com/Jvw7o5EDD4

— Sonia Rolley (@soniarolley) November 16, 2020

We leave this to our readers to judge for yourselves.

Please, as you consider his words, keep in mind that the Congolese people have received little or nothing from Dan Gertler’s mining activities in the DRC.

Dan Gertler has had kosher food carted by private plane from Kinshasa to his locale at a cost of upwards of $20,000/day if that number still stands.

Dan Gertler has been the subject of Magnitsky Act sanctions for bad acts and conduct, not for his alleged generosity.

Judge for yourselves.

Glencore and Bribery – Gertler, and Speculation Re: an Attorney’s Activities in Ukraine

REFILE-UPDATE 2-Britain’s fraud office opens investigation into Glencore

Dec 5 (Reuters) – Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched an investigation into Glencore concerning “suspicions of bribery,” the company said on Thursday.

Glencore, one of the world’s biggest commodity traders, is already subject to a U.S. Department of Justice enquiry in connection with corruption in Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela and Nigeria.

The SFO confirmed https://www.sfo.gov.uk/2019/12/05/sfo-confirms-investigation-into-suspected-bribery-at-glencore-group-of-companies it was investigating the conduct of business by the Glencore group of companies, its officials, employees, agents and associated persons, but said it could not comment further on a live investigation.

Glencore has said it will cooperate with the investigation.

The company’s shares dropped 6% to 223.9 pence following the announcement, pushing it to the bottom of London’s blue-chip index.

Over the course of this year, Glencore’s shares have fallen more than 20%, pressured by broader concerns about safety and sustainability in Democratic Republic of Congo.

CEO Ivan Glasenberg told investors earlier this week he expected to step down next year once a new management team is in place. (Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Alistair Smout, Julia Payne and Barbara Lewis in London; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Jane Merriman)

Gertler, Glencore and the DRC, why the New President Needs Decisive Action

Gertler, Dark Payments from Mining, Glencore, the IMF and President Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC

IMF, Congo Meet as President Tshisekedi Seeks Reconciliation

By

William Clowes

‎May‎ ‎23‎, ‎2019‎ ‎7‎:‎26‎ ‎AM

The International Monetary Fund arrived for its first talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2015 as President Felix Tshisekedi seeks to repair relations with the Washington-based institution and fulfill a pledge to fight corruption.

Tshisekedi, who replaced Joseph Kabila after elections in December, last month told delegates while on a visit to Washington that he’d come “to untangle the dictatorial system which was in place.” He told another meeting that Congo’s endemic corruption had “discouraged serious investors.”

“We urge them to do a thorough audit at every level and not to be lenient,” Gilbert Mundela, an adviser to Tshisekedi, said in interview Thursday in the capital, Kinsasha.

Non-government organizations want the IMF to undertake “an independent audit into the management of public companies,” according to a letter addressed to Managing Director Christine Lagarde. They also called for unpublished mining contracts to be made public.

The fund halted a $532 million three-year loan program for Congo seven years ago after the government failed to publish details of a 2011 mining deal. “Opacity in the management of public companies has only increased” since the program ended, according to the letter.

Dark Deals

The local organizations singled out state-owned mining company Gecamines, saying its transactions with international investors “are done in darkness.” Advocacy groups such as the Atlanta-based Carter Center and London-based Global Witness say Gecamines failed to account for hundreds of millions of dollars paid to it by partners in copper and cobalt deals. Gecamines rejects the claims.

The 32 organizations are also “worried” about royalties paid to Israeli businessman Dan Gertler from two copper-cobalt mines controlled by Glencore Plc. The contracts enabling Gertler to acquire the royalty streams are unpublished, according to the letter.

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Glencore PLC, Loans to Gertler, Leveraging Companies, DRC and Kabila…

Glencore Gave Loans to Businesses Linked to Suspect Congo Dealings

Swiss mining giant Glencore GLNCY -0.60% PLC provided nearly $1 billion in loans and advances to companies associated with an Israeli businessman accused of having corrupt ties to government officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The loans, made over a roughly 10-year period starting in 2007, were designed in part to help finance investments by the businessman, Dan Gertler, in copper-mining operations in Congo alongside Glencore, the documents show.

The amount of the loans—more than previously reported—highlights the financial ties between Glencore and Mr. Gertler during their decadelong partnership in Congo. The relationship has been a focus of U.S. and Canadian authorities, who have been investigating the company’s Congo operations and ties to Mr. Gertler.

Glencore, the globe-spanning mining behemoth and trading house run by Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg, for years has pushed back against complaints about its ties to Mr. Gertler. Mr. Gertler and his main company in Congo, Fleurette Group, have denied wrongdoing.

Analysts say mounting concerns about Glencore’s Congo operations have contributed to a decline in the Swiss company’s share price.

The details about the loans are contained in the Paradise Papers, a trove of documents from a Bermudan law firm obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with The Wall Street Journal. The papers first surfaced in late 2017.

Glencore has disclosed some of the lending to Mr. Gertler in broad strokes. A 2017 deal to buy out Mr. Gertler’s stakes in two Congo mines, for instance, folded in $556 million in debt—including $120 million in interest—that Mr. Gertler owed Glencore, the company said at the time. The cash payment in the deal was about $534 million.

The documents, though, detail a series of specific transactions in which Glencore helped to finance Mr. Gertler’s business interests in Congo. Glencore’s chief financial officer frequently signed off on documents associated with the loans.

The overall value of the loans and many of their details haven’t previously been reported.

A spokesman for Glencore declined to comment on the specifics of the loan agreements. In response to a 2014 report by London-based corruption watchdog Global Witness about Glencore’s mining deals in Congo with Mr. Gertler, Glencore said all transactions with the Israeli businessman’s companies “have been conducted on arm’s-length terms, and all public disclosure requirements applicable to us have been complied with.”

A spokesman for Fleurette Group said, “Loans made to Fleurette and its related companies were negotiated on arms-length commercial terms.” Any implication that the loans were improper is wrong, the spokesman said. “Fleurette has operated transparently and in line with all applicable laws during its interactions with Glencore,” he said, adding that all loans were used for legitimate purposes and were repaid.

Documents reviewed by the Journal show that in 2011 a company controlled by Mr. Gertler owed $300 million to a Bermuda affiliate of Glencore, Limajo International Inc., a previously undisclosed debt.

By the end of 2014, Mr. Gertler’s company owed Limajo $510 million, the documents show.

Glencore’s ties to Mr. Gertler date to the mid-2000s, when both invested in Nikanor PLC, a London-listed Congolese copper operator. In 2007, Glencore lent about $250 million to a company controlled by Mr. Gertler, and that company used the funds to purchase a stake in Nikanor, according to the documents.

Mr. Gertler later used about $61 million in Glencore funds to amass shares in another Congo mine operator, Katanga Mining Ltd. , after it merged with Nikanor, the documents show. Glencore invested in Katanga alongside Mr. Gertler and eventually came to control it.

In total, Glencore provided nearly $900 million in loans and advances to Mr. Gertler’s companies, according to the documents. Some of that amount likely included accrued interest on some of the loans, the documents show.

Glencore’s Katanga Mining, in addition, made about $80 million in advances to a company controlled by Mr. Gertler from royalties he was entitled to receive, according to Katanga’s public filings. Glencore purchased Mr. Gertler’s stake in Katanga in 2017.

The U.S. Treasury Department in December 2017 sanctioned Mr. Gertler, accusing him of trading on a friendship with Congo President Joseph Kabila to amass a fortune through “opaque and corrupt” deals on behalf of multinational companies seeking to do business in Congo. Mr. Gertler has declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations.

Last month, Canada’s main stock-market regulator said Katanga Mining hid from investors the risks associated with its reliance on Mr. Gertler. The Ontario Securities Commission said Katanga, which trades in Toronto, paid associates of Mr. Gertler “to maintain relations” with the Congolese government.

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