Miami man wins $30 million verdict against Expedia over confiscated property in Cuba | Wire

MIAMI — In a first such decision, a Miami federal jury has found that travel booking company Expedia Group owes $29.85 million to a Cuban American family in damages for having promoted and sold bookings to Floridians at hotels in land confiscated by the Cuban government during the early days of Fidel Castro’s revolution.

The case was filed by Mario Echevarría, one of the heirs of a Cuban family that claimed ownership of Cayo Coco, a small key off the northern coast of central Cuba, against Expedia and its affiliate sites Hotels.com and Orbitz under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. It is the first of such lawsuits to reach a jury trial.