The Republic of Cuba prevailed this Tuesday in the trial that took place in London and which stems from the lawsuit of CRF-I Limited, the investment fund that claims to be a legitimate creditor of the Banco Nacional de Cuba (BNC) and the Cuban State.
In the High Court of England and Wales, Judge Sara Cockerill notified the lawyers this Tuesday morning (local time in the United Kingdom) that she was dismissing the CRF-I Limited’s lawsuit against the Cuban State, according to a report by Prensa Latina (PL) news agency.
República de Cuba gana pleito en Londres. CRF no es acreedor del Estado cubano. Seguiremos informando a partir de esta decisión que hemos escuchado por videoconferencia desde La Habana, aproximadamente a las 3:40 am. @CubaMinjus https://t.co/1mSTpvc2H9
— Oscar Silvera Martínez (@OscarCubaMinjus) April 4, 2023
“At a hearing held this Tuesday, April 4 (08:45 a.m. in this capital) at the High Court of England and Wales, Judge Sara Cockerill notified the lawyers for the parties of the ruling corresponding to the lawsuit filed by the vulture fund CRF-I Limited against the Republic of Cuba and the Banco Nacional de Cuba (BNC).”
The judicial resolution confirms that the irregularities committed by BNC officials, first subject to criminal investigation and later to a judicial sentence, were reasonable reasons for the Cuban government to deny its consent to assign the debt in favor of CRF, the report pointed out.
The document, according to this source, affirms that the BNC does not have the legal capacity or authority to represent the country and confirms that CRF is a stranger in the financial instruments that it claimed against the Caribbean country and did not have the right to establish the lawsuit in London.
“The Republic of Cuba is, therefore, immune to English jurisdiction and has no obligation to respond with its assets to this lawsuit,” reads the report, which states that the central purpose of the judicial process was to determine whether the British court could be competent to recognize the lawsuit of CRF as a creditor of the BNC and the Republic of Cuba.
According to the sentence notified this Tuesday morning, CRF-I Limited, registered in the Cayman Islands, is not a creditor of the Cuban State, which means that it is out of the lawsuit. From now on the process will continue only against the BNC, which will have the right to establish the lawsuits that English law allows.
This fund, constituted as an offshore commercial company, claims the payment of 72 million euros (78.6 million dollars at current exchange rates) in Cuban sovereign debt. That sum derives from loan agreements between Cuba and two European banks (Crédit Lyonnais and L’Istituto Bancario Italiano) signed in the 1980s.
