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US can veto directors of Spanish companies

| News | Cuban Desk

Ignacio Aparicio explains that it is not necessary for companies to have been sued in U.S. courts for their business in Cuba to bar their executives from entering in Vozpópuli

Meliá is one of the Spanish companies hit by the Helms-Burton Act with the veto of its CEO, Gabriel Escarrer, but it may not be the only one. The law was enacted by Bill Clinton in March 1996, but its Title III, which allows companies to sue for allegedly benefiting from property confiscated in Cuba after Fidel Castro came to power, remained suspended until May 2019, when the Trump Executive decided to activate it.

It was then that some of the claims that had been filed with the United States Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC) began to reach the United States courts, causing a flood of lawsuits - or notices of possible lawsuits - against companies, many of them European and Spanish.

On the other hand, Title IV of the aforementioned law allows for the expulsion from the country or the prohibition of the entry of foreign representatives of companies that "have confiscated goods of US nationals or have trafficked in such goods" in the Caribbean country. This has been active during all these years, but it had not been used until now with Meliá, as Vozpópuli advanced a few days ago, being in April 2019 when the Trump Government announced that clear steps would be taken for its implementation.

The question, then, is who can be susceptible to this veto. According to Ignacio Aparicio, partner of Andersen Tax & Legal and head of the firm's Cuban desk, it is not necessary for the companies to have been sued in the US courts. It is enough that a claim exists for the United States to be able to apply it.

You can read the full article in Vozpópuli.

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