House Democrats Urge Yellen to Reinstate Gertler Sanctions

(Bloomberg) -- Several Democratic House lawmakers are urging Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to reverse the Trump administration’s decision in its final days to ease sanctions on Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler.

The U.S. sanctioned Gertler and his companies in 2017 for allegedly corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries. But in his final days in office, President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, issued a license allowing Gertler and his companies to resume business through January 2022.

“We strongly encourage you to revoke this license as soon as possible,” Representatives Karen Bass and Gregory Meeks from the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Yellen in a letter Wednesday.

At the time of Gertler’s sanctioning, Treasury said Gertler worked as a middleman between multinational companies and the Congolese state and on behalf of former President Joseph Kabila.

Gertler hired high-profile defense attorney Alan Dershowitz and Louis Freeh, a former FBI director, to petition the U.S. government to remove him from the sanctions list. Dershowitz also represented Trump in his first impeachment trial.

Lawmakers Bass and Meeks say that the license that Gertler secured “appears to have almost entirely bypassed established inter-agency processes,” saying Treasury has not illustrated how Gertler demonstrated contrition in exchange for the easing of sanctions.

The license, signed Jan. 15, allows Gertler and his companies to resume business at least until the license expires. It was authorized by Andrea Gacki, a long-time civil servant who is the director of Office of Foreign Assets Control.

“In fact, the publicly available evidence demonstrates the opposite is true. Since being sanctioned, he has created shell companies, opened accounts with tiny financial institutions in the DRC over which he maintains control, and received pay in foreign currencies to circumvent our laws,” they said.

A spokesman for Gertler did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment, but last week he told Bloomberg in a statement that “prior to engaging in any previously prohibited activities we will be adopting and implementing the most stringent anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies and measures across all our global practices.”

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