The Rosenblatt team Harvey Rands, George Jackson, Madeleine Binkley, and Memery Crystal’s Tracy Tsao is pleased to have obtained a landmark judgment establishing jurisdiction against Banco Nacional de Cuba in respect of Cuban sovereign debt held by their client CRF I Limited (“CRF”).
In judgment handed down yesterday, the Commercial Court held that CRF are a legitimate creditor of Cuban sovereign debt payable by Banco Nacional de Cuba, the former Cuban central bank, having agreed to an assignment of two debt positions from ICBC Standard Bank to CRF.
The court rejected Cuba’s contrived allegations both of bribery, and that CRF is a vulture fund. Cuba’s allegation of bribery was cynically maintained without foundation for two years before being dropped shortly before trial.
CRF may now proceed to a substantive trial to enforce recovery of the sovereign debt that it unequivocally owns. In the meantime, Banco Nacional de Cuba has been ordered to make a payment of £575,000 to CRF on account of costs.
The Republic of Cuba relied on Cuban law to establish that the Banco Nacional de Cuba could not consent to an assignment of Cuban sovereign debt on its behalf. Accordingly, CRF have now made an express request directly to the Republic of Cuba for consent to assign the underlying guarantees, which they have no ground to refuse in accordance with the judgment handed down.
How we can help
Rosenblatt has a wealth of dispute resolution experience and is well-equipped to support and advise companies and individuals. For enquiries, please contact Dispute Resolution Partner Harvey Rands at Harvey.Rands@rosenblatt.co.uk or Dispute Resolution Associate George Jackson at George.Jackson@rosenblatt.co.uk.
