July 7, 2011

http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2011/0706Businessman-Ready-Sentencing.htm

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 6 (acn) The Provincial Court of Havana declared the trial on French businessman Jean-Louis Henry Autret accused of money laundering, and of eight Cubans, ready for sentencing.

The five-day public trial took place June 28-July 2 at the second room of the Provincial Court of Havana, specializing in economic crimes and corruption.

According to a Granma report, the verdict will be announced shortly.

The newspaper’s article says the Prosecutor is seeking a 15- year sentence for Autret, who has lived in Cuba for more than one decade. The French businessman is also accused of illegal economic activities, currency smuggling and tax evasion.

The other defendants were charged with falsification of public documents and bribery and the Prosecutor asked from three to seven year terms for them .

The eight Cubans are Maria Collazo Gonzalez, Juan Carlos Hechevarria Aguilar, Jose Diosdado Romero Basulto, Daymis Daisy Toriza del Valle, Jesus Alberto Zaldivar Ochoa, Yaima Saliva Castellanos, Yizza Lassalle Marino and Delia Rosa Rosales Leyva.

Granma said the defendant’s statements as well as plenty of evidences that included documents issued by French authorities at Cuba’s request were submitted to the court for consideration.

In his accusation, the Prosecutor stated that the activity of money laundering by Jean-Louis Henry Autret was framed by means of several societies, the use of bank services for “alleged business operations” among the societies, and cyclical transactions between bank accounts in Cuba and abroad.

Such activity had the purpose of hiding, distort and legalize the origin of funds resulting from the illegal traffic of narcotics and associations created for those purposes and which significantly increased Autret’s private capital, reads Granma report.

The Fiscal Ministry explained that between 1997 and 2009, Autret developed trade through commercial associations that in some cases were not legally registered, and in others their social object did not correspond with the activities for which Autret committed the crimes of currency smuggling and tax evasion, as defined by the Cuban penal code.

The newspaper adds that the lawyers who represented the defendants in the case counted on all the legal resources required for their exercise and expressed the legal arguments they considered relevant for the defense of the case.