Netherlands fines Israeli tycoon Dan Gertler’s Shell firm €25.8m over Congo mining bribery case |
The Dutch government has concluded a lengthy corruption investigation involving a company linked to Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, imposing a €25.8 million ($30 million) penalty on Fleurette Properties Ltd. for bribery related to mining deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The settlement marks the end of an eight-year probe into alleged illicit payments made to secure access to valuable copper and cobalt mining licenses in the resource-rich African nation.
Dutch prosecutors announced on March 10 that Fleurette Properties, a Netherlands-registered company owned by Gertler, accepted a penalty order and paid the fine to settle the case. The investigation focused on payments made between 2010 and 2011 to the late Congolese businessman and political figure Augustin Katumba Mwanke, who was widely regarded as one of the most influential power brokers in the DRC during the presidency of Joseph Kabila.
According to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, the payments were intended to secure lucrative mining deals involving copper and cobalt deposits—two strategic minerals essential to the global energy transition and the manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles. Prosecutors said the payments constituted bribery designed to gain preferential access to mining licenses in the DRC, a country that holds some of the world’s largest reserves of cobalt.
Despite the financial penalty, the settlement does not involve criminal charges against individuals. Fleurette said in a statement that it accepted the factual basis of the payments while noting that Katumba was not formally a public official during the relevant period. By paying the fine, the company closed the case without admitting criminal liability beyond the facts outlined in the settlement.
The investigation dates back to 2019 and examined transactions linked to Fleurette’s dealings in the DRC’s mining sector nearly a decade earlier. Dutch authorities said the case revealed how companies used intermediaries and complex corporate structures to influence political figures and secure access to highly profitable mining concessions.
A spokesperson for the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, Jeroen Toet, said the case involved “the bribery of high-ranking officials” in exchange for favorable........