Cuba probes dealings of Canadian trading firm

Cuba probes dealings of Canadian trading firm
Reuters Marc Frank | Reuters

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban authorities are investigating the business
dealings of Canadian firm Tri-Star Caribbean, one of the best known
trading companies on the island, foreign business and diplomatic sources
said this week.

The cause of the investigation was not clear, but it appeared to be the
latest looking into kickbacks involving Cuban imports, sources said.

Company President Sarkis Yacoubian was picked up in mid-July for
questioning, they said, and since then as many as 50 to 60 people,
mainly company sales personnel, state purchasers and functionaries, have
been questioned and in some cases imprisoned.

Cuban President Raul Castro has made fighting corruption a top priority
since taking over for his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, and in the past
year a number of Cuban officials and foreign businessmen have been
charged in graft cases.

Tri-Star Caribbean does business with a broad assortment of ministries
and state-run businesses -- from tourism, transportation and
construction to the nickel and oil industries, communications and public
health.

The company has one of the largest foreign trading offices in Havana and
has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transportation,
construction and other equipment and machinery to the communist-run
country since 1996.

Yacoubian, an Armenian-born Canadian citizen, has always gotten a tip of
the hat from other foreign traders for his deftness at navigating the
turbulent and murky waters of Cuba's export-import businesses.

HIGH PROFILE

"Due to the U.S. embargo and our close links to the United States most
companies are loathe to do business directly with Cuba," said a Canadian
businessman who asked not to be named.

"So the Cubans turn to the trading companies which do the purchasing and
delivery for a high margin and inevitably run into Cuba's security
apparatus which is tasked in part with circumventing U.S. sanctions," he
said.

Tri-Star has gained a high profile in Cuba by involving itself in civic
causes and throwing lavish year-end parties for prominent local and
foreign businessmen.

Now those same circles are rife with rumors about who has been
questioned, what might be behind the investigation and Yacoubian's
whereabouts and possible fate.

An employee at Tri-Star's headquarters in Novia Scotia said he was not
there and his brother Greg, reached at a Toronto phone number, told
Reuters: "I can't make any comment right now."

A Western diplomat said the investigation was unusual because it is
being carried out by state security services, not the Attorney General's
Office.

President Castro, a general who headed Cuba's Defense Ministry for 49
years, has cracked down on corruption as part of his efforts to revive
the country's sagging economy.

He has moved military officers into key political positions, ministries
and export-import businesses and in 2009 established the Comptroller
General's Office with a seat on the Council of State.

A source close to the case said the Comptroller General's Office has
been brought into the case, "meaning big fish might be caught up in the
net."

The crackdown has resulted in the breaking up of high-level organized
graft in the civil aviation, cigar and nickel industries, at least two
ministries and one provincial government. An investigation into the
communications sector is currently under way.

Two Chileans, former Fidel Castro friend Max Marambia and his brother
Marcel, were recently given long sentences in absentia for convictions
on corrupt business charges. They will not serve them unless they return
to Cuba.

(Editing by Jeff Franks and Cynthia Osterman)

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