AREQUIPA, Peru – The British investment fund CRF I Limited has sent a letter to Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel offering a last opportunity to negotiate the payment of debt of more than 72 million euros, derived from loans signed in the 1980s. by Fidel Castro.
A report of Telemundo 51 points out that the letter to the Castro ruler would have also included an ultimatum: the deadline to reach an agreement is next January 19.
Delivered on December 30 to the Cuban Embassy in London, the letter reports a debt restructuring with several favorable changes for the regime on the Island.
These new terms propose a first payment of £40 million to a British account, as well as the subsequent creation of a new loan instrument, allowing the remaining amount to be restructured interest-free over a period of five years.
However, the document indicates that the arrival of Donald Trump to the white housein the United States, could affect the global political climate starting next January 20. So he warns Díaz-Canel about the temporary nature of the opportunity and the possible limitations regarding future agreements.
The regime’s response may be permeated by its lack of liquidity and other financial complications of the National Bank of Cuba (BNC), identified as the main debtor of the British fund.
In any case, faced with a potential rejection of the new terms, the Castro regime has international assets that could be used to offset this debt if the courts so rule.
The regime’s position on the millionaire debt
Last July, BNC rejected before the London Court of Appeal the legitimacy of the investment fund CRF I Limited as its creditor to collect the 72 million euros.
According to the EFE agency, during the appeal—to which the regime sent his spokesperson Humberto López to cover it— the BNC argued that Judge Sara Cockerill — who in April 2023 determined that the BNC had recognized CRF as a creditor in 2019 — was wrong to validate the assignment to CRF of contractual rights over the banks’ original loan securities Europeans.
This assignment was signed on November 25, 2019 by the former director of operations of the BNC, Raúl Olivera Lozano, who is currently imprisoned in Cuba in connection with this case.
The BNC maintained that the assignment was invalid because Olivera did not follow proper internal processes, which required certification with two signatures. CRF, for its part, disputes this argument, claiming that it was not strictly a banking operation.
The BNC maintained that the assignment was invalid because Olivera did not follow proper internal processes, which required certification with two signatures. CRF, for its part, disputes this argument, claiming that it was not strictly a banking operation.
CRF, registered in 2009 in the Cayman Islands, also alleged that, even assuming that Olivera had acted without authorization, the BNC effectively validated the assignment by responding to letters from CRF’s British legal representatives.
Furthermore, the BNC argued that it did not receive the necessary notice for the reallocation of the debt in the manner required by contract. The debt, initially contracted in 1984 with the banks Credit Lyonnais and Istituto Bancario Italiano, later passed to ICBC Standard Bank, a British subsidiary of the Chinese bank ICBC.
In its defense before the court, the BNC accused CRF of trying to block Cuba from the financial markets to facilitate the collection of its debt portfolio. Cuban unpaid, which amounts to around 1,200 million euros.
CRF denies being a “vulture fund” and assures that it is “a responsible investor.” The fund claims it only sued the Cuban bank to encourage it to negotiate an amicable debt restructuring.
