Cuba Sanctions Compliance

By Dennis Gonzalez Jr., Esq. — Former Miami-Dade Prosecutor | Criminal Defense Attorney If you own a business in Miami-Dade County and it has any connection to Cuba — travel services, cargo shipping, remittances, import/export, telecommunications, or any other commercial activity involving the island — you may have received a compliance notice from the Miami-Dade County Tax Collector’s Office in recent weeks. You are not alone. According to the Tax Collector’s Office, 3,909 compliance notices have been sent to Miami-Dade businesses suspected of engaging in Cuba-related commercial activity. The notices demand that you confirm whether your business conducts such activity and, if so, provide documentation of federal legal authorization — including any licenses or certifications from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) or the U.S. Department of Commerce. Many business owners are treating this like routine paperwork. That is a serious mistake. How you respond to this notice — or fail to respond — can determine whether you face a simple administrative issue or a federal criminal investigation. As a former Miami-Dade prosecutor and criminal defense attorney who serves the Cuban-American community, I want to walk you through exactly what is happening, why it matters, and what you should do right now.