Egg Theft in Havana Leads to 18 Prison Sentences from 5 to 15 Years
HAVANA TIMES — A Cuban court has imposed 5 to 15 year prison sentences on 18 State company officials and employees in Havana for their involvement in the much-publicized theft of over eight million eggs, a crime that caused the country millions in losses.
On Friday, Granma, Cuba’s major official newspaper, reported that those convicted were employees of the Unidad Empresarial de Base Acopio y Distribucion de Huevos Habana (“Havana Base Egg Rationing and Distribution Company”) and the Empresa Provincial de Comercio (“Provincial Sales Company”) in the Cuban capital and were accused of embezzlement, misappropriation and the falsification of bank and commercial documents.
Initially, 19 employees were summoned to the preliminary hearing, but one of them was absolved due to lack of evidence.
The sentencing closes an investigation begun in October of 2012, after a considerable number of invoices reporting unrecognized delivery locations were detected. The accused were tried on October 6, 2014 at the Committal Hearing Chamber of the Havana Provincial Criminal Court, but it wasn’t until March 13 this year that the case was made public through a detailed article titled Los retorcidos caminos del descontrol (“The Twisted Paths of Neglect”)
Audit and Police Investigation
Following a special audit that revealed serious irregularities in the sale and distribution of eggs, a police investigation uncovered a series of illegal transactions for a value of 8,907,562 Cuban pesos, some US $ 370,000.
The District Attorney’s Office initially called for 8 to 20-year prison sentences and for the accused to answer for the damages they caused.
The investigation, conducted by the Criminal Investigations and Operations Division of the Ministry of the Interior, reported accounting errors, failure to comply with company obligations by managers, experts and drivers; failure to abide by the routes established for the sale of eggs; the falsification of invoices and, in the words of the article, the existence of a “criminal network, spurred on by the blatant absence of control mechanisms, the vulnerability of company operations and the total loss of ethical and moral values.”
The egg cartons were being sold in the black market at 35 to 40 Cuban pesos.
The article did not specify when the accused were convicted or whether they have the right to appeal their sentences, as is mentioned in reports on similar cases.
The report on the trafficking of eggs reaches us after egg production fell to 2.064 billion units last year, 3.2 million less than was produced in 2013, resulting in shortages and complaints by the population.
Gracias Fidel
Cuba if given half a chance could do a whole lot more
American go around the planet blackmailing anyone and everyone who deals with Cuba
Keep in mind Under Clinton In Iraq 500000 children died from nonutrition and the lack of basic sanitation indirect cause of the American embargo
United States is a heartless murderous ruthless nation .
American war veterans live under bridge in homeless shelters and camps that’s what happened to you in USA you or expendables .
Because of Clinton and NAFTA
Haitian went from being a self sufficient to eating mud so they can stay alive
We the Palestinians did not ask for this war , it was the Zionist who started the whole thing killing massacring butchering getaway with blood on their hands
to make things worse they’re still talking about the greater Israel
The Yinon Plan
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-israeli-dream-the-criminal-roadmap-towards-greater-israel/5391839
All the blood that has been spelled is only the beginning anyone who understands history understands that they’re not going to stop anytime soon they have 400 nuclear bombs Iran holds 0
And Israeli keep blaming everybody else except their own greed which is the main reasons for the problems in Middle East
Palestine have 50 percent unemployment there is nothing to do except bury the dead
México is a failed state? This coming from a Palestinian. Are you on crack?
Israel created Hamas? What a ridiculous comment. Hahahahaha! We are done here.
Palestinians blame the Jews for their own failures to direct attention from their terrorist, kleptomaniac leaders. The average Cuban is likely smarter than you and knows communism and its implementers the Castros are to blame for their misery, not an embargo. All Europe, Asia and South America have long been able to trade with Cuba but sugar only buys so much. A strong work ethic and the right to keep what you can earn are absent in “Palestine” and Cuba hence their base condition.
Gracias Fidel
Khazarian jews who are not symmetric people consist of 95 percent of the Jews I am more of semitic then they are
(synagogue of Satan in the book of Revelation 3.9 )
Original Jewish who are Arab Jewish less than 5%
The moral of the argument if there was no cuban embargo ,Cuba would have been a slice of heaven on earth
To me it is
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it
If United States of America get their wish Cuba will resemble Mexico a failed state or maybe create the Civil War so if you love your country think twice about what you wish for it might come through
Viva Fidel
this is your answer on American war crimes
Israel created Hamas for the purpose of splitting the Palestinians into two different week entities can’t handle the pressure
Our mistake as Palestinians we should have occupied Poland before the Polish occupied Palestine .
israeli with dual citizenship exceed 80 percent of the population
A Russian Jew who comes off the boat have more right then I do
I live there for thousands of years and I am NOT allowed back into my own country
Palestine is nothing more the open air concentration camp all what is left is the gas chambers
Please read your history before you argue
The Israeli – Palestinian conflict is a two-way street. Hamas terrorists pose an existential threat to a small country like Israel surrounded by enemies. Batista was a cruel dictator but no worse than his successor Fidel Castro. I don’t know who you are referring to when you write “bunch of slaves”, but for my part, I take orders from no one (ok, maybe my wife). You clearly hold anti-Semitic as well as anti-US feelings. You are probably on the wrong site. Havana Times is about Cuba.
Gracias Fidel
I am a Palestinian USA allowed Zionist to massacre Palestinians for over a hundred years
with the support of American money and weapons
don’t tell me USA did not commit massacre I am a victim of the USA
born by the sword die by the sword ,USA history is full of blood since day one
what about the Fulgencio Batista was he an angel
prior to the Cuban Revolution you are nothing but a bunch of slaves to the Mafia and the Jewish interest and USA
Guantanamo Bay is practically an occupied territory
do you have what it takes to say Yankee go home
Cuba did not have trillions to squander but Fidel did waste tens of millions in his African adventures. I vigorously disagree with your charge that the US military committed “massacres”. You obviously don’t live in Cuba. Your comments reflect that of the typical armchair Bolchevik still smarting over the loss of the Soviet Union. Finally, how are US reading levels relevant here except as a way to attack the US?
Gracias Fidel
Cuba did not squander trillions on Foreign Wars does not commit massacres alarm the planet did not occupy someone else’s country there is more innocent blood on the hands of the American government than anyone else I can think off
Average American reading level between 6th and 9th grade how can you expect to maintain an empire what’s a work force who could barely started on them
At an income tax rate of more than 95%, neither the education nor the health care in Cuba is close to being free. Given the fact that the Castros peg the Cuban national currency to the US at 26.5 CUP to the dollar., the real GDP of Cuba would be markedly less is the CUP were allowed to float based on real value.
Really? So where do you draw a moral line? Obviously stealing is acceptable to you under certain circumstances. I guess lying is cool for you too? Is it torture where you finally get a conscience? It was wrong and they are thieves. The only difference is that the Castros are as much to blame for creating the conditions that encourage criminal or immorality behavior.
Criticizing the US as a a way to defend the failure of the Castros in Cuba is nonsense.
Viva Fidel
$370,000 in eggs x¢.89 equal 415730.337 dozens x 12 equals 4988764.04 eggs in United States of America you could spend a whole lot more time in prison if you embezzle $500 from bank
Considering all the free education free healthcare clean environment
Such an event is a crime to me it’s also a treason
If your house is made out of glass don’t go throw stones in somebody else’s
By some estimates Pentagon have lost up to $8.5 Trillian
Was there any investigation ? did anyone get arrested ? or did anyone went to prison ?
The entire GDP of Cuba is $72.3 billion $370.000 can go a long way and do a lot of good
Obviously what they did was wrong but the bigger question is WHY did they feel that they needed to steal the eggs. We know the answer to that one. They can’t live a decent life on the money they make. We might do the same under the same circumstance. We cannot judge.
Viva Fidel
I wish we have some of this discipline in the Unites States of Americans are turning into a bunch of burgers with all the corruption that is going on over here
In the USA less than1% rules over 99% to add insult to injury there is a 1% that control the 1percent
I would tell you to be careful what you wish for it might come through
America does not have a dream there is only a nightmare
How can Cuba move towards transparent and thorough public reporting of criminal prosecutions?
The Cuban egg mafia? This is what happens when human beings are reduced to having so little to possess that trafficking in eggs becomes a criminal enterprise. Castro’s New Man is an egg thief.