SLP, Mexico.- The Cuban regime created a company presumably civilian to process remittance shipments from the United States, but the business is directed by the CIMEX Corporation, a unit of the military conglomerate GAESA, as revealed by an investigation by the Miami Herald.
The company Orbit SAafter the figure of an independent and civil company, registered under the Ministry of Commerce and Foreign Investment, is a Cuban Government company that handles remittances from the United States, the report indicates.
Orbit SA was created by the Havana regime after Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on its predecessor, FINCIMEX, in 2020, for its ties to the Cuban military.
Although the sanctions paused remittances to Cuba for a period of two years, in 2022, according to the investigation, the Government assured the United States that it had created the Orbit company without military ties.
The company appears officially attached to the Ministry of Commerce and Foreign Investment but in light of the new data offered by the Herald It was found that it is actually directed by CIMEX.
Diana Rosa Rodríguez Pérez, former executive vice president of GAESA, is listed as director of Orbit. According to the documents, CIMEX, which also oversees FINCIMEX, provides monthly reports to GAESA on money transfers processed by Orbit and systematically discusses the company’s performance with the military conglomerate’s executives.
Orbit looks like FINCIMEX
After the creation of Orbit, Inventory Project warned that both entities shared some similarities: the company had practically the same geographical location as the predecessor, since its office was next to another FINCIMEX office, in the Miramar neighborhood.
Nearly Orbit In 2022, there were at least seven other properties with FINCIMEX offices and offices, according to the aforementioned investigation. The independent media also exposed that the remittance sending websites promoted by Orbit (www.enviodinero.com and www.moneyexchange.es) were the same ones previously used by FINCIMEX.
Inventario also confirmed that at least two of its employees in 2022 had been employees of the GAESA entity. One of them was Annia Pérez Mederos, the person who appeared in the registration of the domain name “orbit.cu” with CUBANIC as the Financial Contact of Orbit SA. The other name corresponded to whoever was the Legal Advisor of Financiera CIMEX SA, Jorge Mateo Naval Rojas.
Orbit SA received approval from the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) to “manage and process international transfers”, which made it the substitute for FINCIMEX.
On October 27, 2020, OFAC introduced an amendment to the Asset Control Regulations Cubans with the objective of “denying the Cuban Government access to funds related to the sending of remittances.” FINCIMEX, since it was already restricted, was out of business.
The new company was not then in the crosshairs of the sanctions and could operate freely because, apparently, Orbit was unrelated to GAESA.
