Washington Fines German Bank for Operations with Cuba

For the second time this year, Washington imposed a multi-million fine on a European bank under the extraterritorial economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba. This time, Germany´s Commerzbank will have to pay one billion dollars for maintaining financial operations with the island.

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 16 (acn) For the second time this year, Washington imposed a multi-million fine on a European bank under the extraterritorial economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba. This time, Germany´s Commerzbank will have to pay one billion dollars for maintaining financial operations with the island.

The unilateral and extraterritorial measure is part of the US Department of the Treasury´s policy that hunts any bank that does transactions with Cuba through US subsidiaries.

According to an article recently published by the Financial Times, cited by Cuba´s Trabajadores newspaper, in September, the German bank agreed to pay 650 million dollars after being accused of doing financial transactions with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and other countries under US sanctions.

However, the Department of Justice and the Fiscal Office in New York, the city where the bank´s subsidiary is based, decided to take the fine up to one billion dollars.

On June 30, Washington imposed a record 8.9 billion dollar fine on France´s Paribas Bank for violating US unilateral sanctions against several countries, particularly Cuba.

According to experts, these multi-million sanctions violate International Law and respond to the enforcement of an extraterritorial and illegal US measures against foreign entities.

Other European banks like Germany´s Deutche Bank, France´s Société Générale and Crédit Agricole, and Italy´s UniCredit SpA are under the magnifying glass of an investigation by US authorities.

Germany´s Commerzbank, founded in 1870, has its headquarters in Frankfurt and at present it is considered the country´s second largest financial institution after the Deutsche Bank. It is also the fifth most powerful bank in the world with subsidiaries in London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels and New York.