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The tussle for control of Sherritt International Corp., a Canadian mining company with deep ties to Cuba, has drawn in two unlikely players: Citigroup Inc. and Office Depot Inc.

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Thanks to a byzantine series of mergers and acquisitions that go back almost a century, both companies hold claims on property seized during Cuba’s 1959 revolution and subsequently used by the Toronto-based nickel and cobalt producer.

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Now, as Sherritt looks for a United States backer to help get out from under Donald Trump’s punishing sanctions, those long-dormant claims are taking on new life. Worth more than US$350 million on paper, they’re also shining a light on how laws designed to protect those who lost property to the communist regime have created a minefield for the new investment Cuba desperately needs.

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“These claims are a veto, not a nuisance,” said Davy Karkason, founding attorney at Transnational Matters PLLC, which specializes in U.S. sanctions and international arbitration. “If Citi says ‘no’ nobody gets to have the mine and Sherritt goes back to square one.”

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Sherritt’s fate has been up in the air since May, when the U.S. president issued an executive order designed to chase foreign companies out of Cuba. The Canadian miner initially said it would dissolve its joint ventures on the island, which include a mine and a power-generation operation, only to reverse course when a former adviser to Trump emerged as a potential saviour.

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In addition to talks with Gillon Capital LLC, the family office of real estate magnate and Republican Party patron Ray Washburne, Sherritt has been approached by a rival consortium that includes global commodities giant Glencore PLC and another Texas billionaire, oil tycoon Albert Huddleston.

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Washburne confirmed in an interview that he’s working to resolve at least one of the two claims as part of his pursuit of the company. “It’s the mine I’m concerned about,” he said this week in Dallas. Asked if he’d be willing to buy out the claim on the facility, he replied: “That’s right.”

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  1. Glencore consortium offers rival bid for troubled Canadian miner Sherritt
  2. Sherritt warns of going-concern risk after Trump Cuba sanctions
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Kyma Capital Ltd., Sherritt’s biggest creditor and part of the Glencore consortium, said the group is aware of the claims and “will seek to resolve them in the context of the applicable U.S. legal and policy framework,” declining to elaborate on how a solution might be structured. Spokespeople for Huddleston didn’t respond to requests for comment.

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Should the successful buyer find a formula that satisfies Citi and Office Depot, it could pave the way for untangling nearly 6,000 outstanding claims under the Helms-Burton Act that have made investing in Cuba treacherous, according to Pedro Freyre, the chair of international practice at Akerman LLC in Miami.

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Any business that touches — even tangentially — on one of those claims is open to allegations of “trafficking” in seized property, the attorney said.