Carlson Wagonlit Travel will pay $5.9 million to the U.S.
Treasury Department to settle a complaint that it violated the trade embargo to
Cuba.
The travel agency allegedly booked 44,430 people on Cuba
trips from August 2006 through November 2012.
The Treasury Department's announcement on April 21 said that
CWT continued to do business in Cuba after it became majority-owned by U.S.
entities in 2006, when CWT became subject to the U.S. Trading With the Enemy
Act.
U.S.-owned companies doing business in Cuba are required to
have licenses issued by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC).
The penalty originally was $11 million but was cut to $5.9
million because CWT voluntarily reported the violations, cooperated with U.S.
investigators and took remedial action.
"In 2011, CWT discovered 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 in a statement.
In 2013, American Express was penalized $5.2 million for
14,000 tickets issued by its foreign subsidiaries for travel between Cuba and
countries outside the U.S. between December 2005 and November 2011.
This report originally appeared in Travel Weekly.