Cuba Investors Alert
HAVANA TIMES – Peter Kappelmann, an HT reader, has put out a warning to people thinking of investing in Cuba. The following is his personal experience.
————————————-
Cuba Investors Beware
By Peter Kappelmann
Here are the facts. I am the investor married to a Cuban national. In June 2016 we purchased penthouse property on the Malecon Avenue overlooking Plaza Maceo.
After five months of renovation my Cuban wife abruptly left for Panama on a Friday evening and on Monday her mother called in the immigration authorities. At the time I was one document away from obtaining my permanent residency.
My A2 Family Visa was ignored as I could not live in the apartment alone under Cuban law.
My attorneys are the Bufete Internacional on 5th avenue Miramar who attended two hearings. We filed a lawsuit – the trial took place without my knowledge or representation and the trial verdict went against me.
We filed an appeal to the Supreme Court; again without informing me of the hearing date or any representation by lawyers, the Supreme Court ruled against me as a non-Cuban.
I the investor am charged with nothing except that under international principle of law I was deprived of my investment, supported by Cuban law that denies foreigners ownership.
On all documents of deed and notaries my name is listed as the husband. I am retired, and now live on Riviera Maya, Mexico where I obtained my green card within two months from interview (based on my financial status).
Before that I lived in Florida for 35 years on an E2 INVESTORS VISA where I owned an oceanfront hotel. My original home is Namibia where we got married and where I hold sizeable investments.
The issue here is the violation of Cuba law against the Internationally accepted principles EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW as well as violation of two articles of the UN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS DECLARATION.
It is therefore that the Helms-Burton act and the EMBARGO are totally justified.
This is an old story, lots of divorced middle aged Cubanas with nice homes in Havana,LOL!!!
I have seen many people and corporate interests from Canada investing in joint ventures with the Cuban government or small businesses in in Cuba. I have not seen any of them get more money back than what they put in the last 20 years. Many Cuban promise foreign investors 5 percent return per month. As soon as the investor stops putting more money in they find out the protection of security against property or other assets disappeared. If they make a lot of noise about it they will spend time in a Cuban jail and then be deported.
Nick I fail to see where Cuba which is a repressive Marxist Leninist government falls in to the global democracy community you refer to.
No conocías la ley de cuba. Por eso te paso eso
The so called Helms-Burton Act is simply an attempt by U.S. law to justify the colonialist nature of the USAs policy towards Cuba and other nations in the region.
Colonialism is what the U.S. Revolution fought against and wonderfully overcame.
But the world is a witness to the jack boot currently being on the other foot. The USA policy is in blatant defiance of all moral and legal decisions taken by the United Nations.
A flagrant and authoritarian refusal to recognise global democracy.
The investor who has written this article has been stitched up by the oldest trick in the book:
He thinks he’s a charmer. But he has apparently been out-charmed by someone with more charm than himself.
And his situation is ultimately his own fault for not doing his homework on Cuban Investment Law. As has already been suggested, this guy ain’t the first one to get shafted in Cuba and won’t be the last.
Supporting the sicko Helms-Burton Act ain’t gonna resolve:
a) getting outcharmed – can happen anywhere on Gods earth.
b) a failure to do one’s homework
Helms-Burton is merely one of the countless mechanisms by which the USA attempts to assert its colonialist authority over its neighbouring countries in order to milk their wealth.
Whatever Helms-Burton does or doesn’t do, it ain’t never gonna stop a gentleman being out-charmed and in the process, being parted from a certain portion of his hard-earned wedge.
I have been doing business in Cuba for 24 years, and have heard this story over and over again. What you don’t hear is that the penthouse is now probably in the mother’s name, and . Cubans have had to find creative ways to survive for a range of reasons, but this trick is not new, nor is it a ploy that is endemic to Cuba. There are many quite legitimate marriages between Cubans and foreigners, with more and more couples deciding to stay and try to make a living investing in tourism related businesses. Some of the better restaurants and boutique hotels that have popped up in the last few years, primarily in Havana, are based on such examples. President Obama’s year long negotiations with the Raul Castro government in 2014 and his 2015 Executive Orders resulted in a flood of tourists from the US and yes, many other countries who’s citizens wanted to see Cuba before it changed significantly under US influence ( this was more about uninformed speculation rather than reality, but it was expressed by many visitors I encountered). It also resulted in many reforms in Cuban law that created first time opportunities for Cubans to choose their own path and start businesses and buy and sell property for the first time in generations. The future for ordinary Cubans looked brighter in 2016 than it does today. Mr. Kappleman’s experience occurred in that timeline, and he is justifiably angry at the Cuban Government and the grifter family he married into. However, his support of legislation like Helms- Burton further underscores a lack of understanding of the realities of living in Cuba. History will continue to portray how arcane and over-reaching attempts by the US Government to force Cuba to reform do first and foremost have a negative impact on the average Cuban. The current U.S. Administration has just as ignorantly continued to act in ways than primarily hurt the individual Cuban, ensuring that hardship rather than opportunity prevail.
Classic old guy who thinks that she loves him because of his charms. This is only a warning for very stupid old guys.
Mr. Kappelmann is the victim of bad advise and a clever Cuban lady who took advantage of that. They set him up. Cuban law does not allow a non resident to own property. He is not the first and not the last to fall, for sure.