TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The family of the late gangster Meyer Lansky is hoping they’ll be compensated for a Havana casino hotel seized after Cuba’s 1959 revolution.
Now that Cuba and the United States have begun trying to resolve billions in dollars in claims for the confiscation of American properties by the island’s socialist government, Lansky’s family sees an opportunity to reclaim the Habana Riviera or its cash equivalent.
Lansky’s 60-year-old grandson, Gary Rapoport of Tampa, tells The Tampa Tribune that the family never filed a claim to the hotel that opened in 1957 because they never thought the Cuban and U.S. governments would open the door for negotiations.
Rapoport says the hotel was forcefully taken from his grandfather, who never recouped his investment in the project.
