Club Med named in multi-million dollar lawsuit over confiscated Cuban property
Wednesday, July 7, 2004
MIAMI, USA: A 95 year-old woman whose family
owned a portion of the Varadero beachfront in Cuba before the Communist
Revolution will file suit on Thursday against the Paris-based Club Med resort
chain for building and operating a luxury hotel on land she says the Castro
regime attempted to confiscate in the 1960s.
Elvira de la Vega Glen fled Cuba in the 1960s and became a U.S. citizen after
coming to Miami. She and her son Robert Glen will be filing suit in Miami
federal court alleging that Club Med made millions of dollars by running the
Club Med Varadero resort from 1997 until last year, when it was sold to Grupo
Pinero, a Spanish hotel firm.
The 337-room luxury resort was one of many
destination hotels operated by Club Med as part of its $2 billion per year
world-wide network, which includes the Club Med Sandpiper resort in Port Saint
Lucie, Florida.
The Glen’s complaint alleges that Club Med
was “unjustly enriched” in violation of Florida law by taking advantage of
valuable confiscated property to build the luxury hotel. It also alleges that
Club Med violated the federal “Trading with the Enemy Act,” and U.S.
Department of Treasury regulations applicable to firms attempting to trade
with the Cuban government, in violation of the economic embargo.
Club Med has previously been notified by the
U.S. Department of State that it was being investigated for violations of U.S.
law for operating the Varadero resort.
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