A Coral Gables travel agency that specialized in trips to Cuba has been hit with a foreclosure lawsuit and a U.S. government agency could be on the hook.
C & T Charters’ website proclaims that it’s “Your bridge to Cuba” and offers both academic and family travel there. The Miami Herald reported in November that Cuba suspended the company’s charter-flight permits. C & T Charters has operated since 1991. Its phone lines didn’t work.
The timing of Cuba’s decision was most unfortunate for Citibank and, ironically, the U.S. government. In July 2012, the bank (NYSE: C) made a $1.5 million first mortgage and a $1.2 million second mortgage to JGAJ Associates, managing member John H. Cabanas and C & T Charters. The second mortgage was assigned to the U.S. Small Business Administration through Florida First Capital Finance Corp.
Yes, a U.S. government agency subsidized a mortgage for a travel agency promoting trips to communist Cuba.
JGAJ used the loans to pay $2.95 million for two units, totaling 5,959 square feet, in the 1300 Ponce Condominium in Coral Gables.
On Feb. 28, Citibank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against JGAJ, Cabanas and C & T Charters over that property. The same day, the bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the same three parties over two mortgages, each $1.6 million, securing Cabanas’ condominiums: two units in the Lexi Condominium in North Bay Village and one unit in the Sterling in Miami Beach.
Miami attorney Alan Grunspan, who represents Citibank in the lawsuit, couldn’t be reached for comment.
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