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A New York man filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the U.S. government's restrictions on spending by American citizens and permanent residents while traveling to Cuba.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, alleges Zachary Sanders was fined after he failed to respond to a March 2000 request by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control for information on an alleged June 1998 trip to Cuba and travel while he was there.
The complaint claims persons who respond to OFAC's request open themselves up for potential criminal sanctions.
"The penalty imposed against Mr. Sanders is unlawful because the Fifth Amendment prohibits the government from punishing failure to obey any regulation that requires a self-incriminating act," the lawsuit said.
An administrative law judge recommended Sanders be fined $1,000 in 2008, according to the lawsuit. OFAC had proposed a fine as large as $10,000.
OFAC appealed the judge's ruling and a designee for then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson affirmed the penalty and increased it to $9,000 on Jan. 16, the Bush administration's last day in office, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint, filed on behalf of Sanders by the nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights, is seeking a declaration that OFAC's policy is unlawful, enjoining OFAC from issuing such penalties and setting aside the fine to Sanders.
The lawsuit names Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as a defendant.
A Treasury Department spokeswoman didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment late Thursday.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com
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