firm linked to Israeli billionaire settles Dutch graft probe into Congolese mining for $30 million

A former holding company of US-sanctioned Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler will pay $30 million to settle a Dutch corruption probe over mining deals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, prosecutors say.

In 2018, Dutch investigators had launched a probe into whether Fleurette, a Netherlands-registered firm that served as the holding company for the Gertler group, and Swiss commodities giant Glencore paid bribes to secure copper and cobalt mining rights at below-market prices.

Investigators suspected that tens of millions of US dollars were paid to a top adviser of then-DRC president Joseph Kabila, a close friend of Gertler who ruled the mineral-rich yet conflict-plagued country from 2001 to 2019.

In today’s statement, the Dutch prosecutor’s office says it slapped Fleurette with a fine of 25.8 million euros ($30 million) on March 6.

“By accepting this criminal settlement, the public prosecutor establishes that Fleurette, acting in concert with others, is guilty of bribing foreign public officials in the DRC in connection with the acquisition of mining licences,” the office says.

Lawyers for Fleurette tell AFP that the fine brings the investigation to a close and that the Dutch authorities have confirmed they will not bring any charges against Gertler himself.

Gertler, who continues to wield significant influence in the DRC, was first sanctioned by the United States in 2017 for allegedly cheating the Congolese state of about $1.4 billion in revenues through opaque mining deals.

While US President Donald Trump reversed some of the sanctions just before the end of his first term, Washington put him back on the blacklist in March 2021.

In February 2022, the Congolese state announced it had reached an out-of-court settlement with Gertler, allowing the DRC to recover disputed mining and oil assets valued at more than $2 billion.

Gertler’s profits in the DRC came to light in 2016 with the publication of the so-called Panama Papers.

The Israeli businessman, who spent nearly 20 years acting as a go-between on some of the largest deals struck in the DRC’s notoriously corruption-riddled mining sector, has always denied any suggestion of graft or underhand wheeling and dealing.