Fidel Castro - The Hypocritical Billionaire
"I own no property other than a modest fisherman's hut somewhere on the coast."
Fidel Castro
Say hello to my leetle friend, Fidel Castro - the hypocritical, opportunistic, billionaire bastard.
Fidel had a great shtick, one that he used to propel himself into power and to later engender cult-like adoration from many Cubans.In public, Fidel spent every waking moment bemoaning the evils of capitalism and wealth. But in reality, Castro adored wealth, luxury, and everything that went with it.
Fidel lived an extraordinarily extravagant life that was kept secret from his people. Before he died, he also amassed an enormous personal fortune that made him one of the wealthiest rulers in the world.
In 2006, Forbes magazine estimated that Castro had a net worth that exceeded $900 Million. In arriving at this number, the magazine cautioned that this figure was likely only the tip of the iceberg since many of Fidel's potential sources of income were impossible to discern.
As the tyrannical head of a government, and thus a man who could do anything without challenge, Castro had access to a dizzying multitude of income sources. In 1959, he began building wealth by plundering the government funds left in Cuban banks after Batista fled Cuba. Castro then moved on to profiting from the confiscation of land, property, and assets valued at well over $7 Billion Dollars.
After all those sources were tapped, he moved on to creating more sophisticated income sources, such as:
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| The man who once said, "[T]he revolution left no possibility for respite or leisure" captured while working hard with Che Guevarra |
As the tyrannical head of a government, and thus a man who could do anything without challenge, Castro had access to a dizzying multitude of income sources. In 1959, he began building wealth by plundering the government funds left in Cuban banks after Batista fled Cuba. Castro then moved on to profiting from the confiscation of land, property, and assets valued at well over $7 Billion Dollars.
After all those sources were tapped, he moved on to creating more sophisticated income sources, such as:
- Skimming impossible-to-trace money from government run enterprises;
- Selling Soviet oil given to Cuba in the international stock exchange; and
- Bypassing the embargo and smuggling Cuban products into the U.S.
"...[W]e assume he has economic control over a web of state-owned companies, including El Palacio de Convenciones, a convention center near Havana; Cimex, retail conglomerate; and Medicuba, which sells vaccines and other pharmaceuticals produced in Cuba ... To be conservative, we don’t try to estimate any past profits he may have pocketed, though we have heard rumors of large stashes in Swiss bank accounts."
Forbes failed to value one other aspect of Castro's revenue sources, i.e. the massive fortune Castro derived from his role as one of the world's biggest facilitator of narcotics trafficking.
For as long as the DEA has pursued drug cartels in Central and South America, Fidel Castro's involvement with cartels ran deep. Very deep. Originally, Castro's naval fleet seized the contents of narcotics "mother ships" that entered Cuban waters while on their way to the southeastern United States from Columbia. Castro would then ransom the seized contraband to the cartels or he sold it on the black market. All that money ended up in Castro's Swiss bank accounts.
When the loss of shipments became too great, cartel leaders cut deals with Castro to stop the narcotics seizures. The deals included Castro providing cartel ships with safe harbor, fuel, and other amenities in return for payoffs of $1,200 per kilo of cocaine.
The Medelin cartel alone smuggled almost 3 tons of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. every year after the deal was cut with Castro. Do the math. One ton is 907 kilos, give or take. 3 tons of cocaine equals 2,721 kilos. At the rate of $1,200 per kilo, that amounts to over $3.25 Million Dollars per year in payoffs to Castro. Do I need to tell you where that money ended up?
And that was just one cartel.
When the loss of shipments became too great, cartel leaders cut deals with Castro to stop the narcotics seizures. The deals included Castro providing cartel ships with safe harbor, fuel, and other amenities in return for payoffs of $1,200 per kilo of cocaine.
The Medelin cartel alone smuggled almost 3 tons of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. every year after the deal was cut with Castro. Do the math. One ton is 907 kilos, give or take. 3 tons of cocaine equals 2,721 kilos. At the rate of $1,200 per kilo, that amounts to over $3.25 Million Dollars per year in payoffs to Castro. Do I need to tell you where that money ended up?
And that was just one cartel.
Narcotics trafficking was obviously a very financially lucrative business for Fidel which netted him millions upon millions dollars that Forbes overlooked. And this trafficking also provided Fidel with smuggling routes that he later used to arm leftist revolutionaries in Columbia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, yet another very profitable venture for Fidel, both economically and politically.
Forbes also failed to estimate Castro's accumulated past profits, deposited in various Swiss bank accounts, when it evaluated Fidel's wealth. Had it done so it would have discovered plenty more dinero that Fidel hid while building his personal fortune from sources such as: the briefcase Fidel received in 1980 containing $10 Million Dollars in currency; or earnings from Soviet oil and food imports which were under his exclusive control valued at some $50 Million Dollars.
Did I forget to mention Fidel's ownership of a bank in London? Or the shares she owned in at least one other foreign bank?
Cha-ching.
Analyzing just three of the over 200 state-run Cuban conglomerates that Castro created during his lifetime, Castro had direct control over billions of dollars in revenues from which to skim. The most lucrative conglomerates were:
- CIMEX, Cuba's imports and export corporation (and thus its largest commercial and financial conglomerate);
- Cubalse, a holding company founded by Castro in 1962, which provided services to foreign firms and embassies while also engaged in the collection of hard currency via chains of stores, cafeterias, car sales and apartment rentals;
- Cubanacan, Cuba's tourism conglomerate controlled by Castro that manages hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, markets, tourist shops, and engages in joint ventures with foreign investors in the tourist industry
It was no coincidence that these companies, and many, many others, were created and structured by Castro to be under his direct control. He was legendary in the creation of companies that appeared to be privately run but actually belonged to him. A healthy amount of income from these ventures was either delivered to Castro in cash or deposited in secretly created offshore bank accounts accounts in his name.
In Part II of the discussion on Castro's wealth I will go where Forbes failed to go and dive deeper into Fidel's plundering of state run companies in order to feed his gargantuan greed. As you will see, the magnitude of funds is staggering, rendering Forbes estimate of Castro's wealth hugely undervalued.
Brilliantly Well Done !
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