Ja, klarer Dan Gertler det?
Dette spørsmålet noterte jeg i november 2019.
Da ble det klart at Gertler hadde hyret inn en rekke USA-aktører med nærhet til Trump.
USAs Finasdeaprtement hadde sanksjonert Gertler i 2017 for korrupsjon ... og låst hans aktiva.
Men i 2019 og 2020 gikk Gertlers leiesoldater løs på Trump.
Da var avisoverskriftene:
"Dershowitz lobbies for the criminal Israeli looter, Dan Gertler"
(Mondoweiss 6. 11.2019
(Mondoweiss 6. 11.2019
"Is an Israeli Diamond Tycoon Using Trump-adjacent Lobbyists to Subvert U.S. Foreign Policy?"
(Haaretz 22. 4. 2020)
(Haaretz 22. 4. 2020)
Og Dan Gertler klarte det.
I Trump sine aller siste embetsdager ble det uttelling:
" Trump Administration Quietly Eased Sanctions on Israeli Billionaire"
"The reversal by the Treasury Department during the administration’s final days came after an appeal by lobbyists with close ties to the former president."" (NY Times 24.1.2021)
"The reversal by the Treasury Department during the administration’s final days came after an appeal by lobbyists with close ties to the former president."" (NY Times 24.1.2021)
"Trump Admin Secretly Eased Sanctions on Israeli Mining Tycoon Dan Gertler""
"U.S. Treasury issued at lightning speed a temporary license suspending sanctions over shady deals in Congo to Dan Gertler, who is represented by Trump ally Alan Dershowitz and former FBI director Louis Freeh." (Haaretz 25.1.2021)
..................................
Da har Trump gått MOT sitt eget departement som sanksjonerte Gertler i 2017.
Og arbeidet mot korrupsjon mht afrikanske ressurser og råvarer satt tilbake.
Det spørs om ikke dette siste grepet av Trump bør granskes
For korrupsjon.
EDIT 8. mars 2021:
Biden gjeninnfører alle sanksjoner mot Gertler.
Da gjenstår å granske Trumps opptreden i denne saken.
For i mellomtiden har nok Gertler ordnet seg mht å gjennomføre de transaksjoner han ønsket.
Skudeneshavn 6. november 2019/ 26. januar 2021/8. mars 2021
Jan Marton Jensen
På Twitter:
26. januar 2021
9. mars 2021
25. november 2021
Kilde:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Gertler
8. mars 2021 Biden gjeninnfører sanksjoner mot Gertler
4. mars 2021
25. januar 2021
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trump-admin-secretly-eased-sanctions-on-israeli-mining-tycoon-dan-gertler-1.9479334
24. januar 2021
2. juli 2020
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-suitcases-of-cash-deposited-in-congo-then-millions-transferred-to-israeli-figures-1.8963439
22. april 2020
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-is-an-israeli-tycoon-using-trump-adjacent-lobbyists-to-subvert-u-s-foreign-policy-1.8768483?=&ts=_1587576551705
13. februar 2020
https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2020/02/all-the-presidents-attorneys/
6. november 2019
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/11/dershowitz-lobbies-for-the-criminal-israeli-looter-dan-gertler/
10. oktober 2016 Bistandsaktuelt
"Bestikkelser til Kongos president sikret gruveavtaler". "En israelsk milliardær, Dan Gertler, i samarbeid med et investeringsfond betalte over 800 millioner kroner i bestikkelser til DR Kongos president, hans nærmeste rådgiver og dommere. Det sikret Gertler kontroll over flere kobbergruver."
.........................................
22. april 2020 Hele Haretz-artikkelen nedenfor
Opinion
Is an Israeli Diamond Tycoon Using Trump-adjacent Lobbyists to Subvert U.S. Foreign Policy?
If mining tycoon Dan Gertler finds a way to skirt the U.S.
sanctions already imposed on him, that will seriously undermine U.S.
anti-corruption efforts – and have major implications for U.S. foreign
policy
When the United States places sanctions on a
rogue businessman or corrupt corporation, the expectation is that
significant financial consequences will result. Some targets of those
sanctions, however, are devising tactics to skirt the measures and
continue with their dirty business as usual.
Today, these evasion schemes are both
putting global banks at risk for money laundering and sanctions busting,
and endangering the United States’ most important foreign policy tool:
targeted sanctions.
A textbook example is Israeli tycoon Dan
Gertler, sanctioned by the United States for his involvement in grand
corruption. An aggressive yet charming businessman who is said to be the
inspiration for the movie "Blood Diamond," Gertler has claimed that he should get the Nobel Prize for his supposed investment in Congo. His record says otherwise.
At age 23, Gertler went to the Democratic Republic of Congo and reportedly gave then-President Laurent Kabila $20 million in cash
– money that was then used to buy weapons – in exchange for a monopoly
on Congo’s diamond exports. He then, according to U.S. Treasury
Department reports,
leveraged a tight-knit relationship with Kabila’s son and Congo’s
subsequent president, Joseph Kabila, to make “hundreds of millions of
dollars’ worth of opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
In 2013, after 15 years of diamond, cobalt, and oil deals in Congo, Gertler made Forbes’ list of the world’s top 25 youngest billionaires.
He has boasted that, "At the end of the day, yes, I’m looking to create
a lot of wealth." Meanwhile, the source of that wealth, a nation with
vast natural resources, has been shattered by systematic looting.
Seventy-seven percent of Congo’s population still lives under the poverty line, and nearly half its children under age 5 are malnourished.
With Global Magnitsky and modernized sanctions targeting entire corrupt
business networks, the United States is deploying proven techniques once
reserved for countering terrorism and nuclear proliferation to support
human rights and good governance, an historic step forward for
international justice.
Gertler, however, is now actively attempting to
dodge those sanctions in a series of power plays that allow him to
continue to loot Congo of its natural treasures. He has set up new companies after being sanctioned, according to Congolese corporate records reviewed by The Sentry. These allow him to continue to be paid tens of millions of dollars in royalties by mining giant Glencore, this time in euros as a tactic to evade the legal jurisdiction of U.S. dollar transactions.
Gertler has also cut post-sanctions deals to have his companies’ oil permits extended by the Congolese government despite allegedly not following DRC investment rules. If the government sells the oil blocks, this would net Gertler another post-sanctions $150 million, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
Gertler recently upped the ante by hiring former FBI Director Louis Freeh and President Trump's legal advisor, attorney Alan Dershowitz to lobby on his behalf.
Their high profiles suggest that the sanctions are having some effect
even as Gertler attempts to poke holes in the net of accountability. But
unless the U.S. closes those gaps by sanctioning Gertler’s new
companies and enforcing the existing penalties, he and his cronies will
seriously undermine U.S. anti-corruption efforts.
When Iran attempted to develop methods
for evading sanctions in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the U.S.
responded with a mix of strong diplomacy and secondary sanctions that
essentially presented foreign governments and banks with a clear choice:
Either do business with the sanctions target, or with the United
States. The U.S. government should do the same with Gertler and others
sanctioned for major corruption and human rights abuses.
How Gertler’s efforts play out will have
significant implications for U.S. foreign policy and, more broadly, for
international justice. At risk is the efficacy of targeted network
sanctions and global anti-money laundering approaches, two of the most
important policy tools the United States has in creating leverage for
change.
John Prendergast is co-founder (with George Clooney) of The Sentry, an investigative team that tracks dirty money linked to war and mass atrocities. Twitter: @TheSentry_Org
Sasha Lezhnev is Deputy Director of Policy at The Sentry, an investigative team that tracks dirty money linked to war and mass atrocities. Twitter: @SashaLezh
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