Dear Supporters of Cuba Travel, and Friends of Albert A. Fox, Jr.,
Albert Fox and the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation need your help!
In May of 2015, OFAC contacted Al at the Alliance office with a demand to pay $100,000. According to OFAC, Al and the Alliance were guilty of “Trading with the Enemy.”
But what exactly did they do?
According to OFAC, Al and/or the Alliance should be fined $100,000 because of two trips to Cuba in 2010 and 2011. Each trip lasted three days, and each helped build bonds of goodwill between the U.S. and Cuba. The first one started dialogue between the U.S. and Cuban oil drillers, and helped lead to a joint accord between the U.S. and Cuba to protect the Gulf of Mexico from environmental disasters. The second trip brought civic leaders from Tampa, FL to Cuba to celebrate the first direct flight from Tampa in over 50 years (& Southwest now has daily flights). Al didn’t make money from either of these trips. He just wanted positive, humanitarian ties between our two countries. But OFAC says Al provided “unlicensed travel services” by helping to organize people to go on these trips. We’re fighting that on the legal front – which is why you’re getting this letter – and the specifics are complicated. But in a nutshell, OFAC is selectively relying on disputed technicalities. So far, this is the only such case that OFAC has brought in over 10 years.
So what did Al as head of the Alliance really do?
Fifteen years ago Al realized what President Obama made official in December 2014: U.S. policy toward Cuba had to change. So Al moved back to his hometown of Tampa after 40 distinguished years in Washington, D.C. and got to work making a difference. As head of the Alliance, he lobbied for a different attitude in Tampa than the destructive one that held sway in Miami. He even ran for Congress on a message of U.S.-Cuba reconciliation. And along the way he made some enemies, including hardliners in OFAC’s Miami office. And after much of what he worked for is coming to pass, they seem to want payback.
This is OFAC’s first such prosecution for Cuba travel since 2007. During that time, hundreds of thousands of Americans have traveled to Cuba, spent money in Cuba, and done business in Cuba; and OFAC has not prosecuted any of them. But it seems that the rules are different for Al and the Alliance, because they did the what the anti-Cuba crowd can’t stand: they challenged the status quo, and criticized OFAC, especially its Miami office which they said should be closed.
Al and the Alliance now face the unlimited resources of the federal government as OFAC pursues its selective prosecution. It’s a David and Goliath contest, and without your help they could be in real trouble.
Please contribute to the legal defense fund so that Al and the Alliance’s legal team will have the resources they need to win!
Albert A Fox Jr./Alliance Legal Defense Fund
c/o Law Office of Arthur Heitzer
633 W. Wisconsin Ave Suite 1410
Milwaukee WI 53203
To make PayPal or Credit Card donations go to PayPal online at https://www.paypal.com, then
click on the send button (top of page), will direct you to enter an email address which is: [email protected]
Most appreciatively,
Dr. Wayne Smith, Honorary Chairman; Former Chief of U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba
Hon. Dennis DeConcini, United States Senator (ret.)
Hon. Joe Stewart, former Secretary to the United States Senate
