The August report from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) contained some embarrassing news about Travelocity. Seems that for for six years, between 1998 and 2004, the Travelocity site booked 1,453 reservations for travel to Cuba. Travelocity, agreed to a fine of $182,750.
The report of the Travelocity fine follows the general OFAC “the less you know the better” policy and reveals no more about the violation than described above. But it's fairly certain that the violation was not voluntarily disclosed because the OFAC report almost always notes that fact if there has been a voluntary disclosure.
But some internet sources have openly speculated that Expedia (or possibly Orbitz) ratted out Travelocity after being fined themselves for voluntarily disclosing Cuba violations back in 2002. As part of the 2002 case, OFAC ruled that the Cuban Assets Control Regulations apply to overseas subsidiaries of U.S. companies as well.
The August report from OFAC also reveals that they are still meting out penalties to individuals buying Cuban cigars over the internet-- one individual being fined $999.45 and another $510.00. I have to agree with Clif Burns on his ExportLaw blog-- this penny-ante harassment of individuals over Cuban cigars isn't worth the expenditure of tax dollars, given other threats to national security.
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