The private bank EFG International became one of the latest victims of the U.S. financial persecution against Cuba, through the unilateral blockade policy against the sources of income to the country and the mechanisms through which financial funds move.
The U.S. Treasury Department reported the "violation" by the Swiss banking institution of the blockade rules. It was based on the fact that between 2014 and 2018, the EFG, based in Zurich, processed 868 securities transactions for clients in Cuba, and for a Chinese citizen, included in that black list of States allegedly sponsoring terrorism, in which they arbitrarily and unjustly keep the Island, Prensa Latina reported.
Commenting on the fact, Cuban Politburo member and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said in X, that it is "clear evidence of the application, with viciousness, of the genocidal blockade against the Cuban people".
"Those who pretend to minimize the damage caused by the blockade and its intimidating and extraterritorial nature are lying", the Foreign Minister added.
Some 3.7 million dollars is the fine imposed on the banking institution which, according to The Wall Street Journal, has around 40 global subsidiaries, and also processed five payments in 2023 for a person blocked by the sanctions imposed against Russia abroad.
Although the data on the fines applied by the Department of Commerce to Cuba's partners are still being compiled, the deputy director general of the US Directorate of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Johana Tablada, in a dialogue with PL, stated that it can already be said that "they have broken the record of previous years".
