Continuing the crackdown on foreign business-related corruption, a provincial court in eastern Cuba issued long prison sentences for 11 executives at state company Cubaníquel and the Basic Industries Ministry, official daily Granma announced in a terse note.
The corruption occurred in connection with an expansion of the Pedro Sotto Alba nickel processing plant in Moa, Holguín province, the article said, without providing details. The plant is part of a joint venture with Canada’s Sherritt International.
Amid reforms intended to give state companies more autonomy, Raúl Castro is leading a crusade against corruption. In the so far most prominent case, a former food industry minister received a 15-year sentence due to corruption involving a Chilean joint venture. Some 300 businesspeople are estimated to be under arrest for corruption, and are awaiting trial. The next trial will likely involve executives of state telecom ETECSA, in a corruption case connected to an undersea cable linking Venezuela and Cuba.
Apparently in connection with the Pedro Sotto Alba case, Cuban prosecutors shut down Canadian-owned trading firms Tokmakjian Group, Tri-Star Caribbean, and British company Coral Capital. The Granma article failed to mention the fate of Cy Tokmakjian, a veteran Canadian businessman in Cuba who was reportedly arrested last year, nor did it mention the arrests of Steven Purvis and Amado Fakhre, both of Coral Capital.
In the nickel case, the Tribunal Provincial Popular de Holguín sentenced Alfredo Rafael Zayas López, a deputy minister of basic industries from 2004-2007, to 12 years of prison for corruption; Ricardo González Sánchez, deputy minister from 2001-2004 and 2007-2010, received 10 years; Antonio Orizón de los Reyes Bermúdez, deputy minister from 1980 to 1999, received eight years; and Cristóbal de la Caridad Saavedra Montero, business director of Cubaníquel, received six years. Five other nickel executives received sentences between six and eight years for corruption, and three more employees received shorter prison sentences for “undue use of financial and material resources.”
The defendants may appeal before the Tribunal Supremo Popular.
In 2010, then-Basic Industries Minister Yadira García lost her job over the Pedro Sotto Alba case. García had to resign from the job she held since 2006, as well as her seat in the powerful politburo of the Communist Party. Raúl Castro later told the parliament that García had done a “terrible job” in the ministry, citing her “weak control” and waste of resources in the plant expansion project.
