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Dutch prosecutors have fined Fleurette Properties, a Netherlands-based company owned by sanctioned Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, 25.8 million euro (cca $30 million) for bribing officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Dutch Public Prosecution Service said Tuesday.
Following the penalty order, Fleurette paid the fine, settling the case and “bringing to a close an eight-year investigation into historic matters dating back to 2010, without charge against any individuals or other entities,” the company stated in a press release.
“Fleurette accepted the constituting facts relating to such payments made to Augustin Katumba, who was not a public official during the relevant period,” the statement continued.
The probe began in 2019, alleging that Fleurette bribed late Congolese businessman and politician Augustin Katumba Mwanke between 2010 and 2011 to secure cobalt and copper mining licenses.
Jeroen Toet, a spokesperson for the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, told OCCRP that the case "involves the bribery of high-ranking officials... to secure lucrative deals for copper and cobalt mines."
Toet noted a "striking aspect" of the case, that while Fleurette was originally established as a shell company in Gibraltar, it relocated its headquarters to the Netherlands during the investigation period to take advantage of the “favorable Dutch business and tax climate.”
The spokesperson refused to comment on media reports suggesting that a director of Fleurette, who reportedly serves as a Dutch tax official, was involved in the case. The fine “was imposed on Fleurette Properties Ltd. The Public Prosecution Service will not comment further on specific names circulating in the media,” Toet said.
The US Treasury sanctioned Fleurette Properties in 2018 among 34 entities and individuals affiliated with Dan Gertler, describing him as an "international businessman and billionaire who has amassed his fortune through hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals" in the DRC.
Gertler, known to be a close friend of the Congolese president, was allegedly influential in helping mining companies—some of which were owned by Swiss commodity trading and mining giant Glencore—to obtain access to extremely rich copper-cobalt deposits at much less 48 than the market rate. As a result of these deals and the underpricing of mining assets sold to offshore companies linked to Gertler, the DRC reportedly lost over US$1.3 billion in revenue between 2010 and 2012 alone.
Gertler was originally sanctioned by the U.S. in 2017 for his role in corrupt mining and oil deals in the DRC. However, in January 2021 the Trump administration granted him a special one-year license that lifted the ban on dealing with U.S. companies and allowed him access to his frozen assets.
Two months later, the Biden administration re-imposed these sanctions, one month after a coalition of Congolese and international NGOs requested the license be revoked.“The scale and nature of the corruption Gertler facilitated had a significant impact on the human rights of many Congolese,” the letter stated, noting that the $1.3 billion lost could have funded almost half of the country’s health budget.
