Biden may revoke Trump's last minute sanctions reprieve on billionaire Magnitsky violator [View all]

[Tanuki]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-03/house-democrats-urge-yellen-to-reinstate-gertler-sanctions

"The Biden administration is expected to reverse an 11th-hour move by the Trump administration to temporarily ease sanctions on Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler following an uproar among U.S. lawmakers and government officials left out of the decision-making process, two people familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. sanctioned Gertler, 47, and his companies in 2017 for allegedly corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But in his final days in office, President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, issued a license which, while not lifting the sanctions against Gertler, exempted his business activities from them until Jan. 31, 2022.
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Defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, whom Gertler hired to help him get removed from the sanctions list, said he hoped his legal team would get a chance to explain why the license was justified. Dershowitz defended Trump in his 2020 Senate impeachment trial.
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At the time of Gertler’s sanctioning, the Treasury said he worked as a middleman between multinational companies and the Congolese state and on behalf of former President Joseph Kabila. The State Department’s Africa bureau was opposed to the decision to ease the sanctions against him."
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