Doing business in Cuba as a foreigner can be dicey.

[El Presidente]

This is a good read. 

I have met many expats working in Cuba over the years. In one way or another they have each been rolled at one time. Mind you, being "squeaky clean" in Cuba and running a business is impossible. That is where the spiders trapdoor lies. 

 

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A brutal high-security prison was the last place Stephen Purvis expected to end up when he moved to Havana. Stephen Gibbs tells his story

Stephen Gibbs

Sun 19 Mar 2017 05.00 EDT

 

If you happened to go to a British embassy reception in Havana in the early 2000s, you would likely have met Stephen Purvis. You could not miss him. Six foot four, cropped grey hair, rum in hand, a broad smile and no shortage of good stories.

The mood among expats soured. All knew someone who had been caught up in the series of arrests

Purvis loved Cuba. Escaping what he saw as the risk of a “pre-ordained suburban middle-class life” in Wimbledon, the architect and his wife seized the opportunity to move to the island 17 years ago. He had been offered a job as development director with Coral Capital, an investment and trading company. It was one of several small foreign firms – almost all led by maverick, adventurous individuals – that were setting up in Cuba as the country sought international partners following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Purvis’s job was to look for joint venture opportunities with the Cuban government. The planned projects included the first golf course to be constructed there since the 1959 revolution, and the revamp of a formerly glamorous hotel, the Saratoga.

CONTINUED

 

[chris12381]

It is a very very good book that illustrates what happens to people and their businesses when the ruling elites believe they have become "too successful" in Cuba.  The indiscretions you were told you needed to commit, that were expected of you by government functionaries, are the same ones  they use against you in your corruption trial...with those same government functionaries testifying against you. 

[LordAnubis]

Like anything, the reward must be large for the risk involved.

[porkchop]

Just coming out of the Great Recession - time to reappropriate anything valuable while capital flow slows to a trickle and prominent governments are preoccupied.