SLP, Mexico.- The London Court of Appeal rejected this Tuesday the appeal filed by the National Bank of Cuba (BNC) against the investment fund CRF, which claims non-payments valued at 72 million euros, according to the agency. EFE.
The court ruling indicated that CRF It is not a “vulture fund” but the legitimate creditor of the former central bank for the collection of the debt contracted since 1980.
“This unanimous decision is a fundamental milestone in our efforts to achieve justice and enforce contractual rights,” Jeet Gordhandas, representative of the background CRF, registered in 2009 in the Cayman Islands.
The decision comes after in July the National Bank of Cuba rejected before the London Court of Appeal the legitimacy of CRF I Limited as its creditor to collect 72 million euros in sovereign debt.
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.
CRF 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.
The investment firm CRF I Ltd sued Cuba and its former Central Bank in 2020, for two loans that were originally granted to the Island by European banks in the 1980s.
In April 2023, in a hearing held at the High Court of England and Wales, Judge Sara Cockerill ruled that the British High Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case against Cuba, but did have jurisdiction in relation to the case against the BNC.
“CRF has been successful against BNC… at the same time, it has lost against Cuba,” the judge said when summarizing her decision in a brief hearing, the agency reported. Reuters at that time.
Behind him failedDavid Charters, chairman of CRF I Limited, called the court decision “a complete victory.”
In this regard, Charters said in a statement that CRF “remains committed to finding a solution with Cuba that it does not have any impact on its budget for at least five years, recognizing the difficult economic situation facing the country.”
