Israeli Mining Tycoon Offers Plea Deal To End U.S. Corruption Probe

Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler has sent representatives to negotiate with US law enforcement authorities over the past few months, in a bid to come to a plea agreement and put an end to the international arbitration procedure against him, TheMarker has learned.

Photo Insert: Signing of an amicable agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo signed and the Ventura group of the Israeli businessman, Dan Gertler, in order to put an end to the legal dispute which opposed them.

The proposal submitted by Gertler includes a prison sentence to be served in Israel, Gur Megiddo also reported for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Gertler is suspected of bribing the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, and some other senior Congolese officials, in exchange for rights to mine resources in the country, according to investigations conducted by authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

Gertler’s representatives proposed he would serve a relatively short prison sentence of up to two years in an Israeli prison in exchange for closing all of his cases several sources with knowledge of the proceedings told TheMarker.

It is not yet known which offenses Gertler agreed to admit to, as part of the proposed plea agreement, and what information Gertler offered to provide – if any – about those who allegedly received the bribes. It is also not known whether the US Department of Justice has accepted or rejected his offer.

Gertler, who for the past two decades has been known as a rather central figure in the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo, held the rights to mine cobalt, gold, diamonds, and oil in the Congo for years. Some of his businesses were run in partnership with international commodity trading companies such as Glencore.

Starting at the end of 2017, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Gertler and his companies due to corruption allegations over his acquisition of mining rights in the Congo, which he secured supposedly by exploiting his connections with Kabila.

Criminal investigations were conducted against him at the same time in recent years. A legal assistance request submitted by the British Serious Fraud Office to Swiss authorities in 2019 shows that the scope of the alleged bribes Gertler is suspected of paying in the United Kingdom case amounts to as much as $360 million, and in cash, as recently revealed by TheMarker.

The tycoon has cut a deal with the Congolese government to return $2 billion and end the arbitration being conducted against him.

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