Mark Pestronk
Q: Two couples in Iran are good friends with some local clients for whom we are arranging a cruise group. The Iranians contacted us via email to become part of the group. They do not hold visas allowing them to visit or stay in the U.S., so I know that they could not come here and depart from a U.S. port. Are there any other restrictions on our sale of travel to citizens of Iran or any other nation such as Cuba?
A: You can arrange travel for Iranians and Cubans, with some restrictions. You need to make sure that the individuals are not on the federal government's lists of terrorists, warmongers, drug lords and money launderers. The regulations that place embargoes, prohibitions and restrictions on dealing with people in other countries are called "sanctions," a program administered by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The OFAC has sanctions programs in place affecting 18 countries. The programs are all different, and some are quite complicated. The complete list and descriptions are at https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx.
The affected countries are Cuba, Syria, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Sudan, South Sudan, Belarus, Ivory Coast, Congo, Lebanon, Liberia, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Myanmar and Libya.
There are two types of programs: restrictions on trading with a foreign government and all its citizens or prohibitions on dealing with named individuals like terrorists and those who help them, wherever they may be located. Some countries are not the subject of sanctions affecting every citizen, but certain, named people are. For example, for Libya, you cannot deal with members of the Gadhafi family or its associates.
For most of the named countries, including Iran, the sanctions programs do not restrict travel services. The law that gives the president the power to impose sanctions and that governs most of the OFAC programs said, "The prohibitions contained in this part do not apply to transactions ordinarily incident to travel to or from any country, including importation or exportation of accompanied baggage for personal use, maintenance within any country including payment of living expenses and acquisition of goods or services for personal use and arrangement or facilitation of such travel including nonscheduled air, sea or land voyages."
Cuba is a bit different because there is a separate law imposing sanctions. Travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens is still somewhat restricted, but there are no longer any restrictions on arranging travel for Cuban people.
Some sanctions programs that do not prohibit travel arrangements restrict financial transactions, so you might not be able to accept payment originating from the country in question. For example, U.S. citizens are prohibited from transactions with Iranian banks, so in your case payment would have to come from your U.S. clients.
For sanctions against individuals and their companies, there are no less than seven lists of "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons." The lists have been compiled at https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov. Penalties for violation of any of the sanctions programs can range up to $250,000 per violation. In 2013, American Express paid penalties of $5.2 million, and in 2014 Carlson Wagonlit paid $5.9 million, both for illegally arranging travel to Cuba.
If you have a travel request from one of the affected countries, you probably need to check OFAC's web pages before selling travel to anyone located there. If you have questions and want a lawyer knowledgeable about all the programs, Google "OFAC attorney" or call OFAC's hotline at (800) 540-6322 for guidance.