The Biden administration is re-imposing sanctions on Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler who was reprimanded by former President Donald Trump.
The United States on Monday rejected sanctions for Israeli mining magistrate Dan Gertler issued in the final days of the Trump administration.
The Treasury said Gertler’s release from sanctions was “inconsistent with America’s strong foreign policy interests in the fight against global corruption,” especially in a Democratic Republic that ‘Chongo (DRC).
The action came after Congolese and international human rights groups and several U.S. lawmakers last month urged the Biden administration to back down a last-minute move by Donald Trump, formerly of Republican Biden.
The Treasury imposed the sanctions in December 2017 and June 2018, accusing Gertler of using his alliance with the former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, to make boyfriend mining contracts worth more than a billion dollars to earn.
The Trump administration eased the sanctions in a secret act in his last week in office in January, a Treasury Department grant showed.
Although the license did not remove Gertler, an affiliate and more than 30 of its companies from the sanctions list, it authorized, until January 31, 2022, “all business and activity” prohibited by control against them.
Gertler ‘s initial assignment under the Magnitsky Controls program made clear “Mr. Gertler was involved in widespread public corruption,” the Treasury Department said in a statement Monday.
The sanctions had prevented Gertler from doing business with U.S. citizens, companies, or banks, effectively preventing him from doing business in dollars.
Gertler has denied it and argued that his investments in the DRC contributed to the country’s development.
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, lead author of Magnitsky’s Global Human Rights Accountability Act, said Gertler should not be given “eleven-hour permission” to do business with U.S. banks and companies.
“If well-connected international billionaires like Gertler think there is a chance they will get away with their corrupt actions, they will not be deterred,” Cardin said.