Diamond Dan, the DRC’s best frenemy

 Aid is not proportional to the amount allegedly stolen in the DRC [View this email in your browser]( June 15, 2021 [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there, It was on a regular workday that Gradi Koko’s life changed forever. In 2018, he was working in the Kinshasa branch of Afriland First Bank, in the upmarket Gombe district of the Democratic Republic of Congo, near government buildings and embassies. Returning to his desk, he passed someone on the way to the restroom. The man looked vaguely familiar, flanked by a security guard, coming from the office of the bank’s director general. When Koko sat down, his colleague Navy Malela called him over. “Did you see that person?” said Malela. “That’s Dan Gertler. We are going to have problems.” The scion of one of Israel’s most famous diamond families, Gertler arrived in the DRC in 1997 and in the two decades since has become an unofficial gatekeeper for mining deals across the country. His activities mean he is never far from controversy. In 2001, the UN reported that Gertler had entered into a $20-million deal with the then-DRC president, Joseph Kabila – used to buy weapons in exchange for a monopoly on DRC’s diamond market. He held sway over which multinational mining companies could mine the country's extraordinary reserves of copper, cobalt, tin, gold and diamonds. On occasion, Gertler also became a key diplomatic emissary for Kabila. And in 2013, the [Africa Progress Panel]( estimated that in one three-year period the DRC had lost more than $1.3-billion from the underpricing of mining assets sold to offshore companies connected to Gertler. In 2016, the US enacted its Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, under which a sanctions programme could target human rights abusers and kleptocrats around the world. On the very first list of sanctioned entities was Gertler, who had been accused by the US treasury department’s office of foreign assets control of amassing his fortune through a series of “opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals” in the DRC. In time around 30 of Gertler’s companies were further sanctioned, as the treasury department barred him from working with US institutions and froze his American assets. This meant that Gertler, who is worth more than a billion dollars, was not supposed to be doing business with any bank, anywhere in the world, that deals in US dollars — including Afriland. That should have been the end of the story. This background was more than enough for Koko to launch his own internal investigation. A few weeks later, in a letter seen by the Mail & Guardian, he wrote to Afriland’s director general Patrick Kafindo to express his reservations. “The account of Monsieur Dan Gertler continues to be active despite being blacklisted by the [US],” he wrote. He also said that Gertler had been signing bank orders on accounts for other businesses at the bank, and recommended that all these accounts be immediately suspended pending further investigation. Since blowing the whistle and fleeing to Europe, [Koko’s life has been upended](. He lives in fear. Gertler on the other hand, has received a reprieve to continue his dealings. His fortunes have reversed with dramatic speed. He hired Donald Trump's lawyer Alan Dershowitz and in its final days, the Trump administration granted Gertler a so-called sanctions licence, which gave him access to his frozen funds and the international banking system for a year. The billionaire has a year’s respite — until 31 January 2022 to be precise — to continue doing business with US companies. This “licence” was granted to the mining magnate by the treasury department on 15 January — five days before the handover of power between the Trump and Biden administrations. To read more investigations such as the one above and get a more authentic picture of what’s happening on the African continent, from reporters on the frontline, sign up for [The Continent](. It’s free and showcases some of Africa’s most talented journalists. To get your copy each Saturday, send a WhatsApp or Signal message to +27 73 805 6068. Don’t forget to save the number. If you're avoiding the noise of messaging apps, send an email to TheContinent@mg.co.za to be added to the mailing list. Until tomorrow, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Subscribe now]( Enjoy The Ampersand? Share it with your friends [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( [Share]( [Share]( Copyright © 2021 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. 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