Arent Fox Partner Timothy Feighery Talks with Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal about Claims over Cuban Assets

Arent Fox International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution partner Timothy J. Feighery was quoted by Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal after President Barack Obama announced that the United States will seek to establish diplomatic ties with Cuba and ease economic barriers.

Prior to joining Arent Fox, Mr. Feighery served as Chairman of the United States Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

Bloomberg reported that “The U.S. recognizes more than 5,900 claims against Cuba stemming from the expropriation of property owned by Americans in the aftermath of the revolution, according to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, an arm of the Justice Department. The claims were worth about $1.8 billion at the time; today, they total about $7 billion with interest.”

“The U.S. government has proven to be very flexible and creative in getting done what it needs to get done at the time of normalization of relations,” Mr. Feighery told Bloomberg. “The Cuban government has to think too that this will be not a big amount of money in the greater scheme of things once sanctions are lifted and full economic relations are restored.”

Mr. Feighery outlined for The Wall Street Journal the importance of addressing the issue of seized assets. “As a country, we have a long history of making sure that our citizens are compensated for losses suffered at the hands of foreign governments,” he said.

To read the Bloomberg article, click here.

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