Background and career
Dan Gertler (Hebrew: דן גרטלר; born 23 December 1973) is an Israeli businessman. He has been a subject to U.S. trade sanctions. He was accused by the Central Intelligence Agency of receiving illegal kickbacks in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iraq.
Dan Gertler is the grandson of Moshe Schnitzer, the former president of Israel Diamond Exchange. His family was involved in cutting and merchandising diamonds, and at the age of 22, he opened his own diamond business. In 1996, he founded the Dan Gertler International. From September 2000 through April 2001, Gertler had the sole right to buy "all diamonds produced in territory under the control of the Congolese Government", for which he had paid Kabila $20 million. He ran a quasi "comptoir" in the Congo his Israeli firm and affiliates. His firm received 70 percent of the profits and the Congolese Government received 30 percent, which included the state diamond producer, MIBA, and all diamonds sold by private businesses. His business was described as a monopoly. After Laurent Kabila's assassination in January 2001, Gertler briefly lost influence in the Congo. In April 2001, Laurent's son and successor, Joseph Kabila, revoked IDI's monopoly, and the International Monetary Fund encouraged the country to liberalize the diamond industry. Gertler reestablished relationship with Joseph Kabila, eventually to the point of being invited to Kabila's wedding in 2006.
In 2001, Gertler established Emaxon Finance International Inc, in Canada, as a subsidiary of Dan Gertler International (DGI) (reported by the International Development Research Centre according to the 2001 International Peace Information Service (IPIS) publication, and according to the Quebec trade register.) In April 2002, Emaxon signed a contract through which Gertler gained a four-year right to market 88% of the rough-diamond production of the Societé minière de Bakwanga (MIBA), about a quarter of the DRC's legitimate diamond exports, at around 600,000 carats a month. Emaxon enjoyed a five-percent discount on its purchase of MIBA diamonds, which it then usually sold in the free market to the highest bidder. Emaxon lent MIBA $15 million to modernize its mining equipment. In July 2017, Exmaxon's corporate registration was cancelled after failing to file annual declarations with the Quebec government for two years. The company was also sanctioned by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control. Fleurette Properties is a Gibraltar-based company which has at least "60 holding companies in offshore havens such as the Virgin Islands", through which Dan Gertler controlled concessions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fleurette Group refers to the group of companies with respect to which Fleurette Properties is either the direct or indirect shareholder. The Fleurette Group owned the Kansuki concession, a Congolese copper and cobalt development project, since 2006. As of April 2016 it employed 30 000 people and was the largest source of private receipts for the Congolese government. In February 2022, the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced that it was close to signing an agreement with the Fleurette Group, owned by the Gertler family, under which it would transfer, among other things, cash, cobalt mines, and oil wells worth two billion dollars to the state. Local organizations praised the decision. Subsequently, Gertler signed the agreement with the Congolese government led by President Félix Tshisekedi. As part of the agreement, Ventora Group, owned by the Gertler family, transferred all the mining and oil licenses it held, including the research results it had conducted on the assets over the years, worth 2-3 billion dollars. Ventora also agreed to pay Gécamines, the state mining company, a significant portion of the royalties it received from Katanga Mining, as the profits from the deal exceeded expectations due to changes in the copper and cobalt market. This was after Gécamines and the Congolese government verified that the transactions were conducted legally and at market value at the time. As part of the exit agreement from business initiatives in Congo, the United States is considering lifting the sanctions against Gertler.
In 2007 Gertler's family trust was the major shareholder of Prairie International Ltd., owner of "Tremalt Limited, which owned 80% of Savannah Mining, the holder of the other half of copper and cobalt operation Mukondo, as well as concessions C17 and C18 in the mineral-rich Katanga Province" of the DRC.
In March 2004, DGI founded Global Enterprises Corporate (GEC) in partnership with Beny Steinmetz Global. In May 2004 GEC signed an agreement with the state-owned Gécamines, finalized in September 2004, to rehabilitate and operate the Kananga and Tilwezembe copper mines. The deal was ratified 13 October 2005 by presidential decree. This deal was later found by the World Bank, reviewing the DRC's three biggest mining contracts, to have been approved with "a complete lack of transparency" (Mahtani 3 January 2007).
Global Enterprises Corporate's mining assets ended up being held by Nikanor plc, registered in the Isle of Man. For example, Gertler and Steinmetz placed Global Enterprises Corporate (GEC)'s 75% share in KOV into Nikanor. Nikanor was owned 75% by GEC and 25% by Gécamines at the time Nikanor was first floated on the Alternative Investment Market in July 2006. This IPO raised $400 million, and Nikanor's market capitalization reached $1.5 billion. In February 2007, 22% of the Nikanor Mining company was owned by the Gertner Family Trust and 14% by Dan Gertler. In January 2008 Katanga Mining acquired Nikanor plc for $452m, rendering the company defunct.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
