In the aftermath of the UN’s investigation, Bredenkamp pulled out of the scheme and sold Tremalt for $60 million to an Israeli American businessman named Dan Gertler, who already owned diamond and copper mines in the DRC. Gertler was a childhood acquaintance of Laurent Kabila’s son Joseph, who helped him purchase his first diamond concession in the Congo in 1997. Gertler also paid Laurent Kabila $20 million for a monopoly on all diamond trading in the DRC beginning in September 2000.
