 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. We don't just want to remove dengottler. We want to remove the system that creates the dengottlers where a 24-year-old can show up in the Congo, access the elites, the bourgeoisie in the DRC, be able to get access to the land where people live and the people who are the indigenous of the land do not benefit from it, but an Israeli businessman is able to get more side-to-side, is able to get the US government to decide and make all these dealings for decades. That's what we want to stop. Not just Gottler, but completely eradicate the capitalist system, this vicious capitalist system with no moral dispossessing Congolese from their land and resources. Dan Gottler, an Israeli billionaire, was slapped with sanctions by the US government under then President Donald Trump in 2017. He stood accused of extensive public corruption in his business dealings in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Days before Trump's term in office was to end, the same administration granted him relief in the form of a license, which allowed him access to previously blocked accounts and to carry out financial transactions. This relief became public only after Trump left office and handed over power to Joe Biden. Now under Biden, the special license that had been granted to Gottler has been revoked again. This has put focus on the Biden administration, but Gottler and his business deals in the DRC are not being looked at as much. Then Gottler was sanctioned by the Trump administration in 2017, if we're not mistaken. He was around some of the corrupt dealings that he had with the DRC. He's seen as one of the peoples who have allowed the regime of Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Congo, to stay in power for long, mainly through mining deals. The way he has operated in the DRC, because he's been close to the president of the DRC, he has had access to some of business deals that he shouldn't have. And these business deals mean mining concessions. So what he will do, he will acquire a mining concession, a penny on the dollar, take it to the London Stock Exchange and sell it back for millions of dollars. When he receives the money, he follows the funds through the government, mainly Joseph Kabila. And there have been records of some of the dealings that has taken place. For example, a hedge fund in New York, Hawkshift, I think they've changed the name to Talon now. Hawkshift had dealings in the DRC to acquire some mining concessions. Through the dealings, they violated U.N. sanctions and of course U.S. laws around grabbing communist politicians. We found out because the U.S. Justice Department investigated this case as there was a complaint filed at the Justice Department. And through that investigation at the end, the U.S. Justice Department fined the hedge funds in New York City for corruptions, not just in the DRC, but the DRC case is important. And that document of the judgment is really important. Because as you read the judgment and you read the appendix, you can see text messages sent to officials, emails, sends messages from then-Guttler to the mining operators. And there is a famous table in there. The Justice Department in the report doesn't mention then-Guttler by name. Doesn't mention Joseph Kabila, the President of the Congo by name. But they use some acronyms. They use some titles that allows us to know who they are, discussing. So they talk about DRC official one, DRC official two, and DRC partner one. DRC official one, we know now that is Joseph Kabila. DRC official two is Augustin Katoomba-Muake, who was a close advisor to Joseph Kabila. He died in 2012. And DRC partner is then-Guttler. This was confirmed through a newspaper that they contacted the Justice Department and they were able to confirm that these officials were indeed the people that I just mentioned. But in that appendix, he actually had dates and amount of transfer, of funds transfer to the bank account, proving that Hatshift bribed politicians with the dealings that they had with then-Guttler. Of course, then-Guttler has denied many charges. So far, for the specific case of Hatshift, we've been encouraging Congolese that they should contact the Justice Department and we should fast suit against them, Guttler, for his dealings. So that's one case. He's allowed some support to the regime to stay in power. So when Trump put the sanctions, it was to signal in 2017 to Joseph Kabila that he should not run for a third term. That was one of the biggest conditions of Congolese elections. Will Joseph Kabila stay in power? And strategically, the U.S. government used sanctions to renege it because they felt in the U.S. interest they needed to be a new wave of leaders in the DRC. So at some point, Congolese interest, U.S. interest kind of collided. But many Iraq-maning interests, that's U.S. interest. That wasn't necessarily, we wanted a free affair, democratic elections. That's now also what took place. But we had the elections in 2018. Felix Cicekedi was declared the winner of the election. That election now, we all know, was rigged. There was a secret deal between Joseph Kabila and the current president, Felix Cicekedi, in front of officials from Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa. That we know now. But after 2018, there was not much traction. What we realized was that then Guttler hired a lobby firm. He hired lobbyists in Washington. Particularly, was interesting. His lawyer, lobbying for him, lobbying in the U.S. administration, was the same lawyer that Donald Trump also used for his impeachment trial. So he was able, in some shape or form, get the U.S. to listen to his demand. So in the last days of Donald Trump, on January 15th, the Trump administration removed the sanction, which surprised everyone. What is going on? There is a, Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the elections in the United States in 2020, before he's actually able to be sworn in on January 15th. The sanctions are removed. And no one to be found about why this is unfolding. You can contact the third Treasury Department. No one is clearly explaining how did this happen. So there was an outcry from civil society organizations, watched dogs in the West, and also in the DRC. And in March, the Biden administration reinstated the sanctions. But we need to be clear what this means. Because one, we say there is a Trump versus Biden. Biden is the great president who supports democracy and has, in his cabinet, his agenda, that he will fight corruption. To me, be Trump or Biden is around U.S. sanctions. We really have to decipher what actually unfolded. Dan Gurtlook clearly has friends in high places who were able to come rescue him when he faced sanctions in 2017. From officials in the U.S. administration to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Gertler was able to rally powerful allies to speak on his behalf. All of this begs the question, who is Gertler and what is his history in the DRC? Beyond his lawyer who was a lobbyist, beyond Dan Gurtler's lawyers. You also had Mossad directors pressuring the U.S. government. And that's what worried me. Whenever I'm reading in the New York Times that the Mossad officials are contacting the U.S. administration, stating that he's actually an asset to U.S. and Israeli interest in Central Africa and Africa as a whole. And I'm wondering who is this Israeli citizen who can have Mossad speak on their behalf? Mossad is an intelligence service. What is then Gertler so essential to intelligence agencies, particularly the one in the United States and the one in Israel? So that was one thing that took me back. The second one is the history of Dan Gurtler. The New York Times expose showed us that this Israeli citizen, a former Israeli defense force soldier, was the Congolese ambassador at large, a Congolese diplomat. He was sent by Joseph Kabila, has an ambassador of the DRC to the White House, like a special envoy to the White House, to discuss Congolese issues opening up U.S. administration to the interests of the DRC, particularly of Joseph Kabila. He was successful at that. He was able to get a response from Condoleezza Rice. And then Joseph Kabila came to Washington DC, was able to meet with George Bush as well. There is a famous video of George Bush and Joseph Kabila where George Bush is praising Joseph Kabila for elections, that how he was able to organize free fair elections in 2006. But when people see that in the media, they don't understand the work that goes in the background. So that's something also to think about. But his history now in the Congo. Dan Gurtler came in the DRC 1997 at the age of 24. Just know as he finishes a three-year military service in the Israeli defense force. So 24-year-old Israeli shows up in 1997 in the DRC, focused on trying to get deals around diamonds, because I think his family members or his grandfather he's the founder of the Israeli diamond exchange. And he had some interest around also diamonds. So as he came to Congo, he became very close with Joseph Kabila, whom at a time in 1997 was also 25 years old. So you have a 24-year-old Israeli connecting with a 25-year-old former rebel, Joseph Kabila, who then introduced him to Laurent Desiree Kabila, the president at the time. There is a war unfolding in 1998. There is a process where because of the war, Congo is receiving some sanctions. They run arms. So they are not able to buy arms. Dan Gurtler is able to facilitate purchase of arms through contacts that he has in Israel. And Laurent Desiree Kabila is able to get these weapons. Through Nali's affiliation with Laurent Kabila, and then of course in 2001 Laurent Kabila is assassinated. And Joseph Kabila in what I call the military coup becomes the president of the Congo in 2001. What do I call it a military coup? Congo is not a monarchy. When the president dies, the son of the president has not become the president. So he became the president. It's clear that this was a military coup. So as Joseph Kabila now takes power in 2001, since Joseph Kabila was very close to him, many of the shady mining deals start going through Dan Gurtler. It's been documented by RAID. There are reports from United Nations reports where they show also the weapons trade. And if you just look at face value, some of the mining deals were in the case of the tanker mining deal, where that deal was for $50 million. Too many different merger from tanker mining to London, London, the Canadian firm connecting with the U.S. firm Freeport for a joint project. Then at the time, got access to the larger copper reserve or copper reserve in the world, taken from Burma. And this mine, acquired at $50 million, was sold to Chinese mining companies recently in terms of billions of dollars from $50 million. So you see that this practice has gone on and on about getting mining companies a penny on the dollar and reselling it. But then when you get the proceeds of the reserve, funnel it to corrupt government officials who are able to commit mass human rights violation in DRC and so on. But what does that tell us? Dan Gurtler has been operating for over two decades. The information about Dan Gurtler dealings in DRC is not new. It's been known since the early 2000. He was never stopped for his dealings. There will be reports after reports. There is a consolidated effort to stop him now. It is a path in the right direction, a support that it should be held accountable. But the question that everyone has to ask themselves is, when Dan Gurtler goes away, who's the new Dan Gurtler? Because also, Dan Gurtler didn't operate by himself. Ben Stymans, who has been already tried and found guilty for corrupt deals in other African countries, was operating with him in DRC. In DRC today, Dan Gurtler is still operating. Just lately, there was a leaked information about a bank in DRC, where after sanctions, Dan Gurtler was still able to use a bank to be able to move money. So that was discussed. So in DRC, there is nothing, no pressure whatsoever, to hold him accountable. And he just created a company to try to counter the whole narrative that he's a bad person and so on. And he has a PR video. As a Congolese watching that video, I felt insulted. In the video, he explains how he's able to, you know, he started a new company. He would like Congolese to invest into this company. It's a cobalt company. It feels the future. The world is really going to be around cobalts and lithium, right? Conway is both cobalt and lithium. So he's encouraging Congolese to invest in this company. And he says something very disturbing in the video. He says that he feels like he's Congolese. He's been in the Congress since 1997. He said, I feel like Congolese. Then I said, what is the top of arrogance that this Israeli defense force individual has to say that he feels like he's Congolese? When he's screwing the Congolese, doing a video about how he's going to screw them all, asking them to join the company and then say, I'm a Congolese. Can you imagine if Patrice Lumumba was alive today and could hear an Israeli defense force who's screwing Congolese with his mineral say, I am a Congolese. What he will do. The speech we heard in June 30th of Patrice Lumumba, that just gives us the indication of why we are fighting for a new Congol. We are fighting for a new Congol because we want to control our affairs. We want to control our land and resources, not having people with shady deals. So that's one aspect of the sanctions. The second one that was disturbing, that I want to point out in the sanctions, is that the U.S. sanctions will list his passport. Then Gottler is traveling around the world with a Congolese passport. How did he acquire this passport? Is he a Congolese citizen? Is he not a Congolese citizen? If he's a Congolese citizen and he's committing all these crimes, why he's not held accountable? If he's a foreign citizen in the Congo, we've effected passport. Why is he not held accountable? But he has a Congolese passport. So why does it take so long to hold people who are exploiting the DRC accountable? That brings us now to the water today. Then Gottler, through the Nicador deal, was able to get the Nicador deal to be merged with Glencourt, the Swiss mining firm. Glencourt, run by the South African Glassenberg, very close to Ramaphosa in South Africa, has a huge stake in DRC for Cobalt. Cobalt is essential to the functioning of modern technology, particularly electric vehicles. Glencourt today has a deal with Tesla. So Tesla sources is Cobalt from Glencourt. So what is the problem with that? The company is supposed to make royalty payments to then Gottler and they were able to pay him 2.5% of royalties from that deal. They have the Cobalt, they're exploiting it, getting it to the market and sending it to the clients, one of them, Tesla. The worst pressure on Glencourt to not pay then Gottler because he was under sanctions, but they still did. So to circumvent the sanctions, they paid him in euros. So Glencourt is aware that there are sanctions. Glencourt is aware that of the shady deals that exist, anyone can read the Justice Department's judgment where Haxshif pleaded guilty and show how they bribe communist politicians to get the mining deals in DRC. And there are many other reports that exist, from the United Nations report to redneck accountability in development reports and so on. So they are very well aware of this yet decide to continue to pay a corrupt business person and making sure that Congress minerals end up in the Tesla vehicles, in the Tesla batteries for the homes. So that's the country that we want to stop. We don't just want to remove then Gottler. We want to remove the system that creates the then Gottler's, where a 24-year-old can show up in the Congo, access the elites, the bourgeoisie in the DRC, be able to get access to the land where people live and the people who are the indigenous of the land do not benefit from it, but an Israeli businessman is able to get Mosul at his side, is able to get the U.S. government at his side and make all these dealings for decades. That's what we want to stop, not just Gottler, but completely eradicate the capitalist system, this vicious capitalist system with no moral dispossessing commodities from the land and resources. And as I always say, I know we'll be victorious. I know that we have to continue to educate the people around what's happening in the DRC so that people know what is happening, and know that we Congolese are now remaining silent when this is happening, and we are calling all the people of the world to join us in our just and victorious fight that we are going to succeed in years come.