French Bank Faces Lawsuit in US due to Law against Cuba

French Bank Faces Lawsuit in US due to Law against Cuba

Washington, Jul 11 ( Prensa Latina) The French bank Societe Generale S.A. (SocGen) is currently facing a lawsuit in the United States under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act against Cuba, triggered as part of Washington”s growing hostility toward the country.

According to the legal news site Law360, heirs of a bank nationalized by the Cuban government in 1960, after the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959, said Wednesday in a federal court in Miami, Florida, that the French entity ignored the US blockade against Cuba. The complaint, filed by 14 grandchildren of Carlos and Pura Nuñez, who once owned Banco Nuñez, alleges that SocGen violated Title III by allegedly ‘trafficking’ in nationalized property when it did business with the National Bank of Cuba (BNC), the website said.

On the other hand, Reuters news agency reported that the claimants demand from the French bank a payment of approximately 792 million dollars, with the argument that it generated hundreds of millions of dollars in fees to lend money and process transactions for the BNC from 2000 to 2010.

The Helms-Burton, approved by the federal Congress in 1996, codifies the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by Washington almost 60 years ago against Cuba.

Despite its entry into force at the time, all administrations prior to Donald Trump’s suspended the application of Title III of the regulations, which allows U.S. nationals to sue those who ‘traffic’ in ‘U.S. property’ in Cuba.

Numerous voices inside and outside the United States have condemned this action to tighten the economic blockade, which is fundamentally aimed at depriving the Caribbean country of foreign investment.

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