The High Court of London will study this Monday a debt recovery claim against the Banco Nacional de Cuba (BNC) and the Republic of Cuba, initially filed in February 2020 by CRF I Limited, an investment fund registered in the Cayman Islands.
In the trial in the Commercial Division of the English court, which is expected to last several days, Judge Sara Cockerill will first decide whether CRF is the legitimate creditor of the BNC and Cuba, for an amount of 72 million euros.
According to case documents, the lawsuit now being considered represents a small part of the roughly $1.5 billion in claims that CRF I has acquired over the years on behalf of its investors, but it is believed that the verdict could extend to Similar cases.
The amount demanded by CRF I derives from loan agreements between Cuba and two European banks (Crédit Lyonnais and L’Istituto Bancario Italiano) signed in the 1980s, where the Cuban central bank had acted as guarantor.
The BNC and the Government of Cuba, who will be present in the process, defend that CRF – which previously tried to reach a collection agreement together with other investors – is not its creditor, considering it a “vulture fund”.
In a statement on January 13, the Cuban bank explained that “vulture funds buy debts issued by countries on the secondary market, at auction prices, to demand immediate payment of 100% under threat of legal action.”
He specified that this procedure is a public debt because “it was contracted by the BNC before 1997, when it had functions of central bank”.
Since then, the statement added, the entity has no power to act on behalf of the Cuban Government or to approve the assignment of public debt without the prior authorization of the Ministry of Finance and Prices and the Council of Ministers.
The BNC and the Republic of Cuba insist that “they have never ignored their debts and have always maintained an interest in negotiating with their legitimate creditors,” which does not include the claimant investment fund.
In preliminary hearings, the Cuban side presented a strategy, now withdrawn, to try to have the case dismissed, arguing that there were illegal procedures in obtaining the information that led to the CRF I lawsuit and that a member of the group bribed BNC officials, specifically Raúl Olivera Lozano, to take over the debt.
Witnesses from both parties are expected to participate in the London trial, some of whom are expected to testify by videoconference from Cuba, legal sources told EFE.
