Trump Administration Quietly Eased Sanctions on Israeli Billionaire

The Trump administration quietly moved in its final days to ease sanctions imposed in late 2017 on an Israeli billionaire who had been punished by the Treasury Department for corrupt and abusive mining practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The reversal by the Treasury came after an appeal by lobbyists with close ties to former President Donald J. Trump who were hired by Dan Gertler, the Israeli billionaire, including the lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz, who helped represent Mr. Trump during his first impeachment, and Louis J. Freeh, a former F.B.I. director.

Mr. Gertler was accused in 2017 by the Trump-era Treasury Department of using his connections to the former Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, to arrange “opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals” that cost the citizens of Congo more than a billion dollars in lost revenue.

The reversal by the Treasury drew immediate condemnation by human rights advocates, who said they hoped that the Biden administration would move to reverse the action.

“Letting Dan Gertler off the hook sends a message to the world’s most corrupt businesspeople that the U.S. will let them walk free after a bit of lobbying,” said Sasha Lezhnev, the deputy director of policy at The Sentry, a nonprofit group that tracks African war criminals and foreigners who try to profit off them.

Calvin Mitchell, a spokesman for Janet L. Yellen, who could be confirmed as soon as Monday as Treasury secretary, said the department was aware of the move but declined to comment when asked if the agency would reconsider.

The license that the Treasury issued on Jan. 15 effectively gives Mr. Gertler, who is based in Israel, a year to do business with United States banks and other companies, while federal officials evaluate if they will more formally remove the sanctions. As part of the agreement, Mr. Gertler will hire outside monitors to confirm that he is now honoring standards set by the United States.

The license also unblocks funds of Mr. Gertler’s that have been held in financial institutions based in the United States, including Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Bank of New York Mellon and Wells Fargo.

Sanctions were first placed on Mr. Gertler in December 2017 under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, a law passed in 2016 that allows the United States to impose sanctions on foreign business executives or foreign government officials implicated in “gross violations of internationally recognizedhuman rights.”

By Eric Lipton, The New York Times, 24 January 2021

Read more at The New York Times

Source: riskscreen.com