NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Societe Generale SA SOGN.PA and BNP Paribas SA BNPP.PA yesterday won the dismissal of a lawsuit in New York accusing them of trafficking in assets that Fidel Castro’s government seized in 1960 from the former owners of a Cuban bank.
The case had sought damages estimated at several hundred million dollars.
It was brought by 12 heirs, mostly children and grandchildren, of Carlos and Pura Nuñez, who had owned Banco Nuñez before and during the Cuban Revolution.
SocGen and Paribas were accused of evading U.S. sanctions by doing business with Cuba’s central bank after it nationalized and absorbed Banco Nuñez and other lenders, resulting in more than $1 billion of profit for the French banks since 2000.
But in Thursday’s decision, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil said that despite claims by a SocGen whistleblower, the heirs lacked proof that SocGen funds kept flowing through Banco Nacional de Cuba even after the French bank was warned about it.
The Manhattan judge also said she lacked jurisdiction over BNP Paribas, which according to the heirs “routinely” provided cash in Switzerland to the Cuban central bank and transacted with entities that did business with it.