Castro Arrests His Long-Time Creditors.

From the Capitol Hill Cubans


It's tough to feel sorry for these European and Canadian financiers who for decades have colluded and enabled the Castro's brutal dictatorship.

But it's ludicrous for the media to portray their arrest (simply) as an anti-corruption campaign, when Cuba's corruption begins at the very top.

None of these investment funds operated in Cuba without the partnership of the Castro brothers and the top military brass.

What we're currently seeing is a bankrupt regime unable and unwilling to pay it financial debts.

So how does the Castro regime engage in debt relief, while confiscating billions worth of investments?

Easy -- it arrests its debtors.

Then, it can seduce a whole new crop of unprincipled fools.

From Reuters:

A British investment fund has become the latest company swept up in an investigation by Cuban authorities of corrupt practices among the Communist island's state businesses and their foreign partners.

Police closed the Havana offices of the Coral Capital Group Ltd last week and arrested chief executive Amado Fakhre, a Lebanese-born British citizen, sources close to the company said.

The offices were sealed and cordoned off with police crime scene tape during the weekend.

Andrew Butchers, the fund's finance director, told Reuters from Coral Capital's London office that the company had no comment now but would release a statement soon.

A month ago, authorities shut down one of the most important Western trading companies in Cuba, Canada-based Tokmakjian Group, after doing the same in July to another Canadian trading firm, Tri-Star Caribbean.

The top executives of both companies and a number of their Cuban employees and business partners were arrested.

Just as in the Canadian cases, the precise allegations against Coral Capital are not known and have not been reported in Cuba's state-run media but they are evidence that the government's corruption sweep is widening [...]

The fund diversified into trade financing and importing heavy equipment and other merchandise in recent years and this, rather than its real estate ventures, may have led to its problems, foreign business sources said.

The company represents various international brands in Cuba, among them Liebherr Earth Moving, Yamaha Motor Corporation and Peugeot Motorcycles, according to its Internet site. The site says Coral Capital has invested some $75 million (48 million pounds) in Cuba, with more than $1 billion of projects in the works.