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Treasury’s OFAC Seeks Records From Cuba Convoy Participants as Piker Names Key Financier

The agency has opened a civil review of funding and logistics that could lead to fines or a criminal referral if evidence shows U.S. sanctions were broken.

Overview

  • Federal regulators at the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control have sent administrative requests for records to participants in a March convoy to Cuba to gather financial, logistical and communications documents.
  • Investigators are focused on whether money, supplies or coordination with Cuba-linked groups violated U.S. sanctions and are using the civil information requests to build evidence that could lead to enforcement or a Justice Department referral.
  • Hasan Piker has publicly defended the activists, said he has not been personally served with a subpoena, and named multimillionaire Neville Roy Singham as a financier tied to the network under review.
  • CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin said an OFAC query sent to Jodie Evans arrived by email and initially landed in a spam folder, and reporting ties the convoy to a broader web of nonprofits that Singham has funded.
  • The probe puts pressure on activists and funders by testing the line between lawful advocacy and prohibited support for a sanctioned government, and it could yield civil fines, greater political scrutiny, or evidence for criminal charges depending on what records show.