[8] Alfonso Fanjul Sr. married the daughter of Spaniard Andres Gomez-Mena who immigrated to Cuba in the 19th century and built up an empire of sugar mills and property by the time he died in 1910.
The couple's holdings were then combined to create a large business of cane sugar mills, refineries, distilleries, and significant amounts of real estate.
In the Dominican Republic, the transaction included 240,000 acres of land, a sugar mill, two hotels in the capital of Santo Domingo and the exclusive resort Casa De Campo in the eastern region of La Romana.
[16] In a turn of diversification, in 1994, Flo-Sun broke ground on a joint venture with U.S Generating Co. to construct a cogeneration power plant adjacent to the company's Okeelanta sugar mill in western Palm Beach County.
CEO Alfonso Fanjul granted a $1 million charitable contribution to the University of Miami to build a research center for the top eye hospital in the nation.
[23][24][25] This brought a sharp response in Washington, D.C., from two of the U.S congressmen from Florida: Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) released the following statement on reports of Cuban American businessman Alfonso Fanjul considering investing in Cuba and its sugar industry.
He knows very well that any investments made with the Castro regime will not help the Ladies in White, Unión Patriótica de Cuba, the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front, or other pro-democracy groups, but rather, will go straight to the pockets of the Cuban people's jailers and continue to prop them up.
"Alfonso should cry less for his lost mansion, and more for the imprisoned artists and musicians, oppressed independent journalists, or for the women that are beaten every Sunday for simply wanting to celebrate mass.
"[26] U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, made the following statement on reports of Cuban-American sugar tycoon Alfonso Fanjul considering investing in Cuba: "At a time when the democracy activists on the island are facing even harsher reprisals from the brutal Cuban regime, it's pathetic that a Cuban-American tycoon feels inspired to trample on the backs of those activists in order to give the communist thugs more money with which to repress.
He doesn't talk about the arbitrary arrests of pro-freedom leaders in Cuba or the continual beatings endured by the peaceful Damas de Blanco.
This is a small source of raw sugar that is imported from 40 different companies to be refined then sold by Domino Foods, a marketing cooperative that among its products sells the Florida Crystals brand.
[31] He was shown as a regular client of Claridge's hotel, enjoying a luxury lifestyle in a £3,500 a night room, with shooting in Scotland and trips across the world.
Swedish author and historian of ideas, Johan Norberg commented in his book The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World published in 2023 that:Among the most successful American welfare queens are the brothers Alfonso and José Fanjul in Florida, who receive around $65 million in subsidies for their sugar empire annually.