Friendlier relations between the United States and Cuba promise lucrative payouts for nearly all involved. US businesses are eager to open up a new market, Cuban citizens are eager to see the end of an embargo and the socialism that held them back from prosperity, and even Cuban officials expect to make a buck managing the transition ahead.
One person who is unlikely to see any riches? Gary Rapoport, the grandson of the infamous gangster Meyer Lansky, who says that his family deserves $8 million in compensation dating back to when Cuba’s new socialist government seized the Riviera, an oceanfront hotel and casino that Lansky opened and the Cuban government still operates.
The US and Cuban governments have begun talks to figure out how they will settle claims on American property was seized after Fidel Castro’s revolution, while Cuba has its own claims of damages due to the US embargo and military invasion of the Bay of Pigs. The US government recognizes $1.9 billion in claims by US individuals and businesses against Cuba, plus simple interest, while Cuba says it is owed more than $120 billion by the US government. Experts are optimistic that a grand bargain could square these claims and move the US to end the embargo.
But the Lansky heirs are likely out of luck, because their ancestor helped screw up the US-Cuban relationship to begin with. Lansky was one of a number of US crime figures who set up operations in Cuba—yes, that Cuba meeting scene in The Godfather Part II really happened—and helped turn the country into a gambling mecca. That involved extensive bribes to the country’s autocratic leader, Fulgencio Batista, who made Lansky his officially salaried “gambling advisor.”
The rampant corruption was an important motivator for the rebels who took down Batista’s government in 1959. The Cuban government, rapprochement or no, is unlikely to agree to pay off one of the major villains in its origin story.
“This takes us back to the early days of the Cuban revolution, when in their initial nationalization laws that allowed for compensation, as we’ve emphasized, there were clauses in there which excluded people who were… ‘participants in or associates of’ the Batista government,” Richard Feinberg, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told reporters earlier this month.
Feinberg has examined the various ways a deal might be reached, and thinks it will be possible to settle US corporate claims—which, at $1.6 billion, make up the bulk of the list—with some combination of tax vouchers or credits, development rights, debt-equity swaps, or long-term government bonds. That would would both settle the debts and provide new investment in Cuba, a win for both sides.
He is skeptical, however, that the US will agree to Cuba’s demands for compensation for damage caused by the embargo. The US government will want to protect its use of economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool. Feinberg expects, though, that any claims settlement will come under a broader agreement that will limit Cuban bitterness over that issue.
Meanwhile, the remaining $230 million in US personal claims against Cuba could be paid out in increments without hurting the government’s cash flow. But even that option won’t really be available to Lansky’s grandson.
“We never filed a claim with the government or hired an attorney earlier because we didn’t think the door for negotiating would ever actually open,” Rapoport told the Florida Sun-Sentinel. “Now it is open.”
Others were more confident that the door would open eventually: 5,911 claims have been certified by the US government since 1964.
Cuba does not owe the US government or its citizens nothing. The revolution removed a corrupt, puppet US-backed government and because of this the Cuban people suffered under an unjust embargo.
Perfectly stated :maafaganwati
Predicated on international laws and norms, Cuba/Castro did break some rules when he nationalized companies and Cuban industries. If they desire to re-enter the realm of international commerce, there is a price to pay. However, that price is paltry compared to what’s owed to Cuba and what Cuba has the potential to earn.
Hence, I implore Cuba to carefully etch out an agreement that will afford them the ability to divorce themselves of their current doldrum reality. If you ask me, Castro/Cuba has won the moral argument and is now time for them to stimulate growth in their economic sectors, et al–so much so that the next generation can reap from such seeds.
I love this article; from ill gotten means Lansky ‘invested’ in Cuba and now his family have the temerity to solicit for compensation.
If underworld individuals have the capacity to seek and get reparations for money that they gained from ill gotten means, us blacks better agitate for reparations too.
Would the US government actually allow the requested funds to be transferred from the shores of Cuba into the hands of Lansky’s scions/remnants?
maya lanskey and the whole lot of those fort bags enjoyed Cuba because of the residual environment of colonial Cuba. Jamaica is where they were heading next.
VIVA FIDEL, siempre
I understand America’s reluctance to compensate Cuba for the embargo but if Cuba is to adopt capitalism, they will need capital to kick start this structural adjustment in their economy, otherwise, they may as well maintain the status quo. All this political pandering is just for our benefit, both Cuba and the US knows which side dem bread butter pon.
Is there a need for Cuba to adopt capitalism? With all of Cuba’s social deficits, unique problems are presented, social policies will have to take the lead and I contend that Cuba needs a tailor-made economic machine; a hybrid of sorts.
Factoring Cuba’s first world literacy rate and first world medical system/infrastructure, all most of the funding would go into job creation/infrastructure building. Cuba need something akin to the Marshall Plan…
If I were Raul Castro I wouldn’t be so anxious to jump into bed with America. As the Indigenous people of America would say ” white man speak with forked tongue” they offer one thing but expect five things back. America is like a cancer every where they go death and destruction soon follow. One of the main reasons that Fidel and Che were so instrumental in the revolution was because the Companies that had investments in Cuba, were merely reaping all the scarce benefits and spoils and the cuban people were being worked to the bone and living in poverty, meanwhile the upper echelon of Cuban society ( white & damn near white skinned ) people were reaping the benefits under Batista. Cuba no owe America one red cent dem fi gweh damn thief. them never get enough money from the 30′, 40’s and 50’s from the coffee, sugar cane and cigars. Bitch please America fi hold several seats.
Dem slickly a wait fi Castro fi dead before dem lift the embargo..Whey so much a dem did a do ina di people dem country a set up shop and Cuba had so much poor? Dem nuh fi get paid a dime
If Cuba did not have something that America wanted, she would not be gunning to reconcile…
Dem gangsta yah brite and bumpshus fi real. How dem criminals and descendants of criminals yah want compensation. Di only ting Cuba owe dem is ah line up in front ah di firing squad. Big up yuhself Fidel, you ah di real Wrerl Boss.
Same way…the were taking the spoils from the people dem island and a mek demself rich…over 5k a dem and cuba nuh big like america…whey suh much a dem a do a set up business there?
Metty, fi dem arrogance is out of dis world. Dem teef more dan dem can handle and still ah look compensation. When since teefin carry pension. Look ere nuh….mi hope Fidel tell Merica fi guh wipe dem batty wid cowitch bush and lowe Cuba :marah