* Verdict expected within 10 days
* Second trial of foreigners in a week
* Part of broader government crackdown
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, May 31 (Reuters) – The two-day trial of two top
executives of a British investment fund ended in Havana on
Friday with a five judge panel expected to deliver its verdict
within 10 days.
The sentences of two other foreigners tried a week ago have
yet to be announced, as the government presses forward with an
unprecedented crackdown on corruption.
In this week’s trial on the communist-run island, Amado
Fakhre, a Lebanese-born British citizen and chief executive
officer of Coral Capital Group Ltd, faced various bribery
charges related mainly to the fund’s import business.
Chief Operating Officer Stephen Purvis, who headed various
investment projects, faced lesser charges, such as operating
outside the bounds of the fund’s license, sources close to the
case said on condition of anonymity.
The defendants’ lawyers and British consular officials had
no comment upon leaving the court, an old mansion, surrounded by
an iron fence, in an outlying Havana neighborhood.
The trial was closed to the media.
There are only a few foreign investment funds in Cuba. Coral
Capital said it invested some $75 million and had more than $1
billion of projects in the works.
The company was caught up in an investigation of Cuba’s
international trading sector, part of a broader crackdown on
corruption by President Raul Castro after he replaced ailing
brother Fidel in 2008.
Fakhre has been jailed since the company’s offices were
raided and closed in October 2011. Purvis was arrested and
imprisoned in March 2012.
In September 2011, authorities shut down one of the most
important Western trading companies in Cuba, Canada-based
Tokmakjian Group, after doing the same in July to another
Canadian trading firm, Tri-Star Caribbean.
The owner of Tri-Star Caribbean, Sarkis Yacoubian,
originally from Armenia, was tried last week at the same court.
He and an associate, Lebanese citizen Krikor Bayassalian, were
charged with bribery, tax evasion and damaging the economy.
DOZENS ARRESTED
Dozens of Cuban officials and businessmen have reportedly
been arrested, tried and sentenced in the anti-corruption sweep.
Cuba’s state-run media has not yet reported the trials, nor
mentioned the arrests and crackdown on foreign trade.
Castro established the comptroller general’s office in 2009,
even as he began implementing market-oriented economic reforms.
That step marked the start of the anti-corruption campaign
that uncovered high-level graft in sectors ranging from the
cigar, nickel and communications industries to food processing
and civil aviation.
Coral Capital, registered in the British Virgin Islands in
1999, was best known in Cuba as the joint venture partner in
Havana’s upscale Saratoga Hotel and another hotel complex on the
resort key of Cayo Coco. It had plans to build golf courses and
related real estate developments near Havana.
The fund branched into trade financing and importing heavy
equipment and other merchandise and this may have led to its
problems, foreign business sources said.
The company represented various international brands in
Cuba, among them Liebherr Earth Moving, Yamaha Motor Corporation
and Peugeot Motorcycles, according to its website, now defunct.
(Reporting by Marc Frank. Editing by Andre Grenon)
