"...a bag full of money"

In his last face-to-face with Michael in Havana, Roth says: "My sixth sense tells me that your brother Fredo brought a bag full of money. Where is it?"

How did Roth know that Fredo brought the money? He might have inferred that Michael would have brought Fredo to Havana for only that purpose. His pals in the Cuban government might have tipped him (although if they knew he had $2 million in that suitcase they would have grabbed it).

Or, Fredo might have told Roth.

Your view?

I think the Cuban's tipped him off that Fredo was in town and he figured Fredo was Micheal's money man. I don't think they grabbed the money because Roth was "a friend" and they knew they would be getting most of that anyways.

Just my thoughts

TB, I think it's another chalk up to authorial license. If Fredo was in deep enough with Roth, then he would have been the one to inform Roth of it.

Until this day I thought that Fredo and Roth had direct or indirect connections in Havana before the New Year's Eve party but Roth was too smart for that because he would have known Fredo would have been too stupid to pull off any secret contact with him
because Michael was right there to keep an eye on him (BTW Michael knew this too which may explain the long standing question -- "Why would Michael tell Fredo he planned to assassinate Roth?).

No Roth probably knew Fredo's flight number, and his suveillance had him getting out of the car at the hotel and clutching to the briefcase handcuffed to his wrist.

The evidence? When Fredo "met" Johnny Ola at the party, Fredo looked stricken with terror...he didn't know how to handle the introduction. It was Ola who bluffed through it, and Fredo followed his lead.

Thus it was Roth, with the help of the Cubans that was really his "sixth sense."

Also, Fredo had some difficulty getting the suitcase back from that 'hotel employee'. It could be that the Cubans had already intended to switch the suitcases, or make it accidentally disappear if Fredo would've handed it over.

Handcuffed to his wrist?

Well clutching anyway

Well, in an old GF2 script, Roth and Ola actually kidnap a courier who had the money handcuffed to him.

In this scene, they simply take the money (Courier says, wait what are you doing?) and Roth calls some of his military personnel to take the courier away, possibly to never be seen from again.

Maybe that's where it came from?

I agree. But I disagree with any opinion that Michael suspected Fredo of knowing Ola or Roth. When Fredo arrives at the hotel, it is he who brings up the subject about knowing anyone in Havana. However, it is somewhat strange that Fredo seems to already be familiar with Havana: "It's my kind of town." he tells Michael. Despite his recent arrival, he seems to already be familiar with local drinks. At the nightclub, he suggests some local drinks to Geary et al.

And yet he did not know how to order a bananna daquairi.

Fredo "The Clutching Hand" Corleone.

I always wondered what the point was of Roth and his $2 million suitcase heist. I now suspect that entire point was that if the first suitcase was stolen, Roth knew that Michael would only send the second one with Fredo. He needed Fredo there to get inside information on Michael for his assassination plot. This paid off when Fredo saved Roth's life.

Regards.

In those days booking flights was a big deal. Flights from Tahoe to Havana could have been easily monitored. Most likely Roth either paid off or tapped the phone of the Corleone's travel agent. All he really needed was someone at Havana airport confirming that Fredo and the suitcase had landed and cleared Batista's customs.

One of the things we should keep in mind when viewing The Trilogy is that members of the audience may not have read the novel. Thus, they need to be informed about what is happening and why. Since there was no novel to read prior to II & III, we who read the novel and viewed the previous entries in the Trilogy, can put two and two together. Those who haven't need to be told and reminded.

I took that to mean that Fredo had heard that Havana was his kind of town, like Vegas. A place where he could have a good time. At the point where he makes that statement, we have no reason to suspect that Fredo had ever been to Havana, so he could be saying that based on what he has heard of the city.

I think it was pretty clear that Fredo had been to Havana before, and thats why Michael asked him to show the VIP's around. When Fredo said it was "my kind of town," there was some sarcasm in his voice IMHO which foreshadowed his "send Fredo to the airport" rant.