“We are closing all doors.” The Trump administration goes after Cuban bank in London
The United States sanctioned Havin Bank, a London-based Cuban-owned bank, on Thursday in another attempt by the Trump administration to cut off the money flowing to the island’s government.
The Treasury Department included Havin Bank on a list of blocked entities that companies or persons under U.S. jurisdiction cannot engage with. Any foreign company that uses the United States’ financial system could also violate the Treasury’s regulations if found conducting business with the bank, a senior administration official told the Miami Herald.
“You can’t be a functioning bank in the UK and not have some sort of connection to the U.S.,” he said.
“This continues to close the doors for them,” added the official, who criticized the Cuban government for its “repression” and “stealing” from the people.”
“Every time they think they will have a vehicle to conduct international financial activities, we will shut it down,” the official said. “We are making the cost of the Cuban regime doing business as usual all the higher. We will continue with that until they change their behavior.”
The bank had previously been included in the list of blocked entities but under its original name, Havana International Bank. In 2015, during the thaw of relations promoted by the Obama administration, Treasury removed from its blacklist several officials linked to the bank.
Emilio Morales, director of the Miami-based The Havana Consulting Group, said that the bank in London provided “a small oxygen line” to the government.
“With this designation, everything is going to be more difficult for them. The companies that did business with that bank are going to think twice about continuing it,” he said.
Havana International Bank was created in 1972 as a private limited company in London. Experts believe that the bank carries out operations related to a network of Cuban government offshore companies.
“The government of Cuba has created financial institutions in many countries to facilitate transactions as a means to avoid the investigative tentacles of the OFAC, “ the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said John S. Kavulich, president of the US-Cuba Economic and Trade Council, based in New York.
Cuba’s National Bank, the main shareholder, granted Havin Bank a license to establish an office in Havana in 1995. The bank reported $1.2 million in revenue, according to public documents.
The sanction’s announcement comes shortly after a sudden stop of dollar remittance services from the United States after the French bank Crédit Mutuel closed the accounts of several Cuban companies for fear of the embargo, several sources said.
“These sanctions close an access route for remittances themselves,” Morales said, adding that the Trump administration has put Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel “against the wall: either they make a transparent and deep opening with real benefits for the people or end up fleeing the country like Batista in 1959.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 6:26 PM.