Editor’s Note
This portrait examines the shifting fortunes of Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a central figure in the nation’s mining sector, his legacy is now deeply contested amid allegations of corruption and a changing political landscape.
In recent years, in Congolese conversations, his name has often rhymed with corruption. He is Dan Gertler, an Israeli billionaire who made his fortune in this large, vulnerable Central African country, whose subsoil wealth turns many heads. Accused of plundering facilitated by his closeness to the late regime of Joseph Kabila, he is undoubtedly now paying the consequences of Félix Tshisekedi’s political divorce with his “close friend.”
In a letter dated June 16 and made public less than three weeks ago, the Congolese Ministry of Petroleum informed Oil of DRCongo, owned by billionaire Dan Gertler, that its exploration permits for the oil reserves of Lake Albert will not be renewed. This is the latest major setback for the Israeli businessman who, after decades of enrichment in the DRC, has in recent years faced assaults from American justice and the new administration in Kinshasa.
Daniel Gertler was born in December 1973 into a prestigious Jewish family in Israel, as he is none other than the grandson of Moshe Schnitzer, considered one of the founding fathers of the Israeli diamond industry, whose global renown today is beyond doubt.
The patriarch Schnitzer co-founded the Israel Diamond Exchange and was even its first president. One of his children, Shmuel Schnitzer, Dan’s uncle, also headed the Israel Diamond Exchange and was president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses. With such illustrious predecessors, young Dan could have dreamed of a career in the high spheres of this rather secretive diamond industry world. However, the budding businessman had other ambitions, which took him to Africa, far from his homeland.
Barely of age, Dan Gertler indeed began trading rough diamonds in Central and West Africa in 1994, sourcing notably from Angola and Liberia, before reselling his treasure in India, the United States, and even Israel. But very quickly, the first accusations appeared. According to a 2001 UN report, relayed by Le Monde, Dan Gertler allegedly used illegal means to obtain the stones in question.
Allegations that Dan Gertler and his entourage still refute today.
Nevertheless, it was also at this time that the future billionaire began his activities in the DRC, also taking advantage of the conflict tearing the country apart. In 1997, at less than 24 years old, he entered the inner circles of Congolese power through promises made to Laurent-Désiré Kabila. In exchange for supplying weapons and money to finance the war, Dan Gertler obtained from the head of state the granting of several diamond concessions at derisory prices. In 2000, notably, he held, for an 18-month period, the exclusive rights to buy and export all Congolese artisanal diamond production. When the president was assassinated in Kinshasa in 2001, it might have been a rout for other foreign businessmen, but for Dan Gertler, nothing really changed. Foreseeing as he was, he had indeed forged ties with Joseph Kabila, who succeeded his father at the head of the country. From that moment on, it was the jackpot.
Dan Gertler obtains mining and oil permits which he resells for up to 10 times the price.
In light of recent political developments in the DRC – the end of the Tshisekedi-Kabila coalition, the new government of “sacred union” – one can see how Dan Gertler is no longer in favor in Kinshasa, particularly with the strongman of the capital, Félix Tshisekedi.
