Cuba-August-Flipbook

LEGAL
Much of the obstruction comes
from the U.S. government...
Pennsylvania lawyer Hayes Hunt
WE GROW TRADE ®
CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF TAKING THE BEST OF ARKANSAS TO THE WORLD
Attorney Hayes Hunt: The U.S. government
is shielding companies
SEEKING A
SETTLEMENT
Property claims against
Cuba stand in the way of
completely normal bilateral
relations. One path
to resolution: Suing the
US government
20 CUBATRADE AUGUST 2017
By Ana Radelat
In addition to the countless hurdles that
stand in the way of total U.S. rapprochement
with Cuba lies the minefield of millions
of dollars in civil judgments in U.S.
courts against the Cuban government.
The case of Rafael Del Pino is one of
them.
Pennsylvania lawyer Hayes Hunt is
trying to secure a $235 million judgment
awarded in 2008 by a Dade County, Fla.,
court to Del Pino’s children, who said
Fidel Castro tortured and murdered their
father. To try to satisfy that judgment—
which has accrued interest and is now
worth about half a billion dollars—Hunt
has sued the federal government to ferret
out information about U.S. companies
that do business with Cuba. He hopes to
garnish payments the Cuban government
receives from those transactions.
Lawsuits like Del Pino’s were allowed
after Congress amended the Foreign Sovereign
Immunities Act to allow civil suits
by U.S. victims of terrorism against certain
countries supporting terrorism. But legal
experts give Hunt’s efforts long odds.
Other claims against the Cuban government
have been satisfied—but that was
years ago, when the U.S. government had
about $200 million in frozen Cuban assets
at its disposal.
That money was used to partially
satisfy the families of those killed when
Cuban aircraft shot down two Brothers
to the Rescue planes in 1996. The pilots’
families had been awarded $188 million in
damages. Frozen funds were also used to
pay $87 million to the daughter of a CIA
pilot shot down over Cuba during the
1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
“That pot is now dry,” said Richard
Feinberg, former senior director of the
National Security Council’s Office of
Inter-American Affairs.
And as for other bank accounts to go
after, Hunt says Cuba now “systematically”
Continued on page 35
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