A Cuban restaurant in Belfast, Northern Ireland, went weeks without receiving over 7,000 pounds in payments from Deliveroo due to a compliance review by Citibank, which its owner suspects may have been triggered by the words "Cuban" and "Factory" in the business's name.
The incident, which forced the establishment to temporarily suspend its orders through the platform and reduce working hours, was later used by representatives of the Cuban regime to denounce the United States' sanctions against the island.
Photo: Facebook / Cuban Sandwich Factory.
Carlos Argüelles Leblanch, owner of Cuban Sandwich Factory, explained to BBC News NI that the payments Deliveroo was supposed to transfer to him stopped coming in mid-June. In his opinion, the name of the establishment may have acted as "a trigger" for banking compliance systems.
"Cuban Sandwich Factory has no relation to Cuba. Cuban Sandwich Factory is a registered company in the United Kingdom and we have no ties to the Cuban government," he clarified.
Argüelles Leblanch, born in Cuba and a resident of Northern Ireland since 1998, opened the restaurant in 2012 and started working with Deliveroo two years later.
The issue proved particularly delicate for the business because orders from the platform account for between 20% and 30% of its sales, while approximately half of its staff's working hours depend on that activity.
With over 7,000 pounds outstanding, the owner decided to suspend orders through Deliveroo and only work with phone orders for pickup at the establishment. He stated that if the debt had continued to accumulate, the restaurant "would undoubtedly have to close."
Citibank confirmed that the funds have finally been released, although it avoided directly linking the incident to U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
“The matter required a necessary compliance review, which has already been completed, and the payments have been made,” explained a bank spokesperson, who clarified that what happened could not be “directly attributed to an administrative error or a sanctions-related issue.”
Argüelles Leblanch, however, had already experienced a similar problem during Trump's first term. At that time, as he recounted, payments were suspended for "three or four months," and he had to prove that he was residing in Northern Ireland to resolve the situation.
"And now it happens again," he lamented.
The businessman also does not believe there is a deliberate action against his establishment; instead, he holds the control systems used to detect possible operations related to Cuba responsible.
"I don't think it's someone sitting there simply attacking me; rather, it's a system, and the system is designed against Cuba," he stated.
The United States maintains a broad sanctions regime against Cuba, and in 2026 the Trump administration tightened several of its measures against the Cuban regime. U.S. financial institutions must implement controls to prevent prohibited operations, although Citibank did not confirm that these restrictions were the reason behind the blockage experienced by the restaurant.
The episode was later utilized by the Embassy of Cuba in the United Kingdom, which spread the case under the slogan in English "Born in Cuba. Bread in Belfast. Blocked by Washington."
The regime's representatives portrayed the events as a consequence of U.S. sanctions, despite Citibank not publicly establishing that causal relationship and confirming that, after completing its compliance review, the payments were released.
For Argüelles Leblanch, regardless of which mechanism triggered the retention, the harm to his small business was real.
"It wasn't intentional, but it's not fair," he summarized.
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