On March 8, 2021, the State Department announced that the Treasury Department, in consultation with the State Department, revoked a specific license that was issued on January 15, 2021 to Specially Designated National Dan Gertler. The granting of a license to Gertler, who was originally designated in 2017 pursuant to the Global Magnitsky program and subsequently designated in 2018 for engaging in public corruption in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was found to be inconsistent with US foreign policy interests to combat corruption around the world. The gesture also reinforces US commitments under the Privileged Partnership for Peace and Prosperity to oppose malign behavior that undermines the DRC’s economy and institutions.
Gertler, an international businessman and billionaire who made his fortune through corrupt mining and oil deals in the DRC, was sanctioned in December 2017 as one of the first serious human right abusers and corrupt actors sanctioned under Executive Order 13818, issued to implement the Global Magnitsky Human Right Accountability Act. Now that the specific license has been revoked and sanctions restored, all of Gertler’s assets in the US are blocked, and transactions with US persons are generally prohibited.
State Department Press Statement | Department of Treasury Press Release (2017)