Miami Dealmaker Establishes a Physical Presence in Cuba

MIAMI, March 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- When President Barack Obama put through more revisions of U.S. trade regulations on Cuba this year, as part of his policy to normalize diplomatic and trade relations with the last bastion of Marxism in the Americas, Miami-based entrepreneur Larry Nussbaum had already placed himself with a very exclusive club.  Nussbaum, well-schooled on the arcane regulations of the U.S. Treasury Dept.'s OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) division – the enforcer of Washington's longstanding trade embargo against Cuba, has been licensed to trade with that country well before Obama's December 2014 rapprochement with Havana. 

With OFAC now permitting American companies who are licensed to do business with Cuba to have offices there, Nussbaum just announced that his company, International Port Corp. (IPC), based in Miami (which is also a U.S.-legalized foreign company in Cuba) now has day-to-day physical operations in that country.

The corporate beachhead that IPC now has in Cuba means that, with the array of general and specific U.S. Federal licenses that it currently wields, along with the numerous contracts it secured with several Cuban state entities, IPC now has a legal presence in Havana with offices/residences, bank accounts, legally-hired Cuban personnel, Cuban legal representation, leased warehouse space and authority to operate any legal business approved by U.S. Licenses and Cuban regulations (including agency representation agreements with U.S. companies currently not legalized or in the process of becoming a U.S. foreign company in Cuba).

In addition, Nussbaum just mentioned that IPC is in the final phase of contract negotiations for new Cuba-bound products & services – to be officially announced in the near future.

IPC already runs various Cuba-centric operations in several sectors, including air and maritime cargo shipping -- ranging from commercial to non-commercial, and humanitarian shipments through IPC; import-export through "Food Bridge"; e-commerce solutions for all Cuba-based embassies and NGOs (including consignment inventory through "Diplomatic Depot"); parcels to Cuban residents (including consignment inventory through "Club Malecon"); and individual & group travel packages (with educational & cultural itineraries) through "Cuban Guru".

Nussbaum already made history when his firm, IPC, which was already granted the first humanitarian cargo vessel license from OFAC, made a shipment directly from Miami to Havana on July 11, 2012 – the first such vessel to do so in 50 years (since the enactment of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba), a feat that generated worldwide media coverage.   In May 2015, IPC was also the first entity to receive licenses from both OFAC and U.S. Dept. of Commerce to conduct direct passenger ferry service from Florida to Cuba.

For further information, contact:

Larry Nussbaum
President
International Port Corp.
Email 
Cell:   (201) 218-4988

SOURCE International Port Corp.