Dershowitz, Freeh Register to Lobby for Sanctioned Billionaire

(Bloomberg) -- High-profile defense attorney Alan Dershowitz and Louis Freeh, a former FBI director, have registered to lobby for an Israeli billionaire investor who's been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Dan Gertler, who the Treasury Department said amassed his fortune through “corrupt deals” in the Democratic Republic of Congo, hired Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan LLP to lobby Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to a registration statement it filed with Congress today. The filing was first reported by CNBC.

The Trump administration included Gertler in a crackdown it announced in December 2017 on human rights abusers and corrupt actors around the world. OFAC has also sanctioned 34 individuals and entities it says are tied to him, freezing their assets and shutting them out of the U.S. financial system.

Treasury said Gertler used his close friendship with Joseph Kabila, then president of the DRC, to act as a middleman for the sale of mining assets, requiring multinational countries to go through him to do business with the Congolese government. It estimated that between 2010 and 2012, the DRC lost $1.4 billion in revenues from the sale of under-priced assets to offshore companies linked to Gertler.

Dershowitz said he doesn't agree with the government's charges, but would present a defense in the proper venue. “Gertler is a wonderful, charitable man who's done a great deal of good for the world,” he added.

The lobbying registration was required because his attorneys will be making legal arguments before a federal agency rather than a court, Dershowitz said. “You have to register,” he said, adding that he will be acting as a legal consultant. “I'm not a lobbyist.“

Freeh's office declined to comment. A call made after business hours to Gertler's office in Israel was not immediately returned.

Dershowitz has been a prominent defender of President Donald Trump. In 2018 he published a book, “The Case Against Impeaching Trump,” arguing on civil libertarian grounds that the evidence against the president from the earlier corruption probes wasn't sufficient to remove him from office. The attorney and Harvard Law School professor gained fame for defending clients in high-profile trials, including Claus Von Bulow and O.J. Simpson.

For Freeh, a former federal judge who served as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1993 to 2001, Gertler is his second lobbying client, federal records show. He also lobbies for KGL Investment Co., a Kuwait-based private equity firm whose chief executive officer, Marsha Lazareva, faces ongoing legal difficulties in the Gulf country. She was freed from prison in May after a 2018 sentence for misusing and embezzling public funds was overturned, but still faces other charges in the emirate, and remains on bail in the country.

The lobbying registration shows the work began in October. It describes Gertler's business activities as extractive industry and charitable activities.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Sara Forden

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