Dan Gertler
Dan Gertler (born 23 December 1973) is an Israeli billionaire businessman in natural resources and the founder and president of the DGI (Dan Gertler International) group of companies. He has diamond and copper mining interests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and has invested in iron ore, gold, cobalt, oil, agriculture, and banking. He may also hold citizenship of that country. As of 2022 his fortune was estimated at $1.2 billion by Forbes.
Dan Gertler | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 December 1973 |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Title | President, DGI (Dan Gertler International) Group of Companies |
| Term | 1996–present |
| Spouse | Anat Gertler |
| Children | 12 |
| Relatives | Moshe Schnitzer (grandfather) Shmuel Schnitzer (uncle) Tehila Gertler (daughter) |
| Website | dan-gertler.com |
Gertler's deals have been under scrutiny by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank since 2012. He has been described as "controversial", and as making most of his fortune from "looting Congo at the expense of its people". The Panama papers revealed deals carried out through Mossack Fonseca shell companies, among his many offshore companies.
Effective 21 December 2017, US President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13818 implementing the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and listed Gertler in the Annex, blocking all of Gertler's assets under U.S. jurisdiction. The implementation of these sanctions was probably one of the reasons that Gertler's close friend, then-President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, decided not to run for re-election in the 2018 election. However, on January 15, 2021 the US Treasury lifted the sanctions on Gertler, though the Biden administration quickly restored the sanctions on March 8, 2021.