CWT to Pay $6 Million Fine for Illegal Cuba Travel

Carlson Wagonlit’s Dutch parent, CWT B.V., agreed to pay a settlement of $6 million to the U.S. Treasury Department for apparent violations of its Cuban Assets Control Regulations, which limit travel to the island nation.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced the agreement last week, saying CWT had to assume responsibility for following U.S. regulations when it became “majority-owned by U.S. persons” in 2006.

‘Significant harm’
According to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC), between August 2006 and November 2012, CWT “provided services related to travel to or from Cuba, assisting 44,430 persons,” in violation of the Trading with the Enemy Act.

CWT could have been fined as much as $11 million, but the agency was given credit for reporting the violations on its own and cooperating with investigators.

Still, its actions “caused significant harm to the objectives” of the U.S. sanctions program, the Treasury Department said.

CWT statement
In a statement, CWT said it discovered in 2011 “that some of its offices had booked travel at the request of certain clients to Cuba, possibly in violation of U.S. law. CWT immediately and voluntarily self-disclosed this to OFAC and put into place strict controls to ensure that it would not happen again.

“We have cooperated fully with OFAC and are pleased that the matter is resolved,” CWT said.

U.S.-Cuba travel
Interest in travel to Cuba is on the rise, thanks to easing of the 50-year-old rules under the Obama administration.

Americans are prohibited from traveling to Cuba for recreation, but “people to people” travel for cultural and educational purposes is permitted – and it is growing fast.

In recent years, a growing number of prominent U.S. tour operators have been licensed by the U.S. government to operate cultural exchange tours to Cuba. Among them are Globus, International Expeditions, Insight Cuba, YMT Vacations and Abercrombie & Kent.

Charade?
While U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has called the people-to-people program a “charade” that “borders on indoctrination of Americans by Castro government officials,” venerable institutions from National Geographic to the Smithsonian advertise people-to-people Cuba tours as breaking down the barriers with our closest Communist neighbor.

Still, the takeaway for agencies appears to be to follow the rules carefully, and to step up and quickly admit to any violations you discover. Those actions saved CWT $6 million.