A federal judge ordered four Florida-based cruise lines that sailed to Cuba to pay more than $400 million in damages to the American company that had the concession to some of the port piers in Havana that had been unlawfully expropriated by Fidel Castro in 1960, the first of its kind ruling under a law that punishes ‘”trafficking in stolen property” in Cuba.
The much-anticipated decision by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom on Friday follows another consequential ruling in March in which she concluded that the four companies — Carnival, MSC SA, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian — committed “trafficking acts” and engaged in “prohibited tourism” by taking U.S. travelers to Cuba and using the Havana port facilities that Castro had confiscated.
The Cuban government never compensated Havana Docks, the American company with the legal rights to the facilities and whose property claim was certified by the U.S. Justice Department’s Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.
