2nd May 2018 15:48
(Correcting that the two mines, Mutanda and Kamoto, are both still operational, not that the freezing orders had suspended operations.)
LONDON (Alliance News) - Glencore PLC won a temporary injunction against Israeli businessman Dan Gertler as it seeks to defend itself from his claim he is owed USD2.28 billion by the company, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.
Last Friday, Gertler - through Ventora Development Sasu - served freezing orders against Glencore's subsidiary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Kamoto Copper Co mine claiming he was owed USD2.28 billion. He also filed against Glencore subsidiary Mutanda Mining SARL with regards a further USD695.0 million in reportedly owed money.
On Saturday, Gertler then obtained a court order in the DRC for a USD2.86 billion payment payment related to the Kamoto mine which included "very significant" lawyers' fees.
Gertler - who was sanctioned by the US in December - claims Glencore has broken its agreement to keep paying him royalties following the sanctions.
In London, however, a court issued a temporary injunction to stop Gertler from taking any further legal steps in the DRC against Glencore.
Glencore argues that the Kamoto royalty contract is exclusively subject to jurisdiction in English courts whilst the judge in London believed Gerlter's move to freeze assets through a DRC court was an attempt to litigate the case in the DRC.
Glencore's lawyer's have argued Gertler's move in the DRC has had a "nuclear impact" on its operations at Kamoto which has subjected workers to a climate of fear and anxiety.
When Gertler was added to the US Treasury sanctions list in December, it said he had "amassed his fortune through hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals" in the DRC. Gertler was reported to use his close friendship with President Joseph Kabila "to act as a middleman for mining asset sales in the DRC, requiring some multinational companies to go through Gertler to do business with the Congolese state."
https://www.ft.com/content/14f3d51c-4d5b-11e8-97e4-13afc22d86d4
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