Schooling in Cuba, Payment from Spain and the Helms Burton Act

The schooling of two children in the École Française of La Habana, Cuba, costs $ 1054 every three months; an amount that the father of the kids was willing to pay. However, the amount never reached destination. In September 2011, a Spanish national ordered payment by means of bank transfer from Novagalicia Banco in La Coruña (Spain), to an office in Paris, Crédit Mutuel-CIC. Unfortunately the operation was performed in dollars rather than euros: this caused the intervention of the Novagalicia Banco correspondent bank in the U.S., JPMorgan Chase Bank; and thereafter, of the US Treasury Department through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The OFAC is responsible for enforcing economic and trade sanctions of U.S. foreign policy, such as those  prescribed by the Helms Burton Act of 1996.

The short term solution for the kids to remain enrolled was … paying again. This time in euros.