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Bloomberg
Exxon Mobil Corp. is suing two Cuban companies for $280 million, saying they benefited for decades from Exxon property seized after 1959 revolution.
The suit was filed in US District Court in Washington, the first day American corporations were allowed to file after the Trump administration lifted a long-standing ban against such actions. The complaint names gov- ernment conglomerate Corporacion Cimex SA and state-run oil company Union Cuba-Petr- oleo, known as Cu-pet, as defendants.
The companies have engaged in “unlawful trafficking in plaintiff’s confiscated property,†including hundreds of service stations, storage tanks, a marine terminal and the Ñico Lopez refinery in Havana, according to the suit. Castro’s government claimed the assets in 1960.
The Trump administration said it would no longer block a provision of a 1996 US law allowing private lawsuits over property seized on island. Presidents of both parties had waived the measure, fearing a flood of litigation against companies from Europe, Canada and other allies doing business in Cuba.