{UAH} Did Trump’s company violate Cuba embargo in 1998

ED MORRISSEY Posted at 10:01 am on September 30, 2016

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Is this ancient history, new fiction, or will it matter much either way?According to Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald, Trump's resort business violated the embargo on Cuba in 1998 by spending almost $70,000 on researching the possibilities of expansion there if the embargo ended. A memo warned a Trump executive to shield this expenditure through a charity, which apparently never happened:

A company controlled byDonald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, secretly conducted business in Communist Cuba during Fidel Castro's presidency despite strict American trade bans that made such undertakings illegal, according to interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings.

Documents show that the Trump company spent a minimum of $68,000 for its 1998 foray into Cuba at a time when the corporate expenditure of even a penny in the Caribbean country was prohibited without U.S. government approval. But the company did not spend the money directly. Instead, with Trump's knowledge, executives funneled the cash for the Cuba trip through an American consulting firm called Seven Arrows Investment and Development Corp. Once the business consultants traveled to the island and incurred the expenses for the venture, Seven Arrows instructed senior officers with Trump's company—then called Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts—how to make it appear legal by linking it after the fact to a charitable effort.

The payment by Trump Hotels came just before the New York business mogul launched his first bid for the White House, seeking the nomination of the Reform Party. On his first day of the campaign, he traveled to Miami, where he spoke to a group of Cuban-Americans, a critical voting bloc in the swing state. Trump vowed to maintain the embargo and never spend his or his companies' money in Cuba until Fidel Castro was removed from power.

He did not disclose that, seven months earlier, Trump Hotels already had reimbursed its consultants for the money they spent on their secret business trip to Havana.

The Trump campaign seemed to be taken off guard by the allegation, offering a contradictory mix of reactions. The Washington Post's Jose DelReal also points out the sensitivity to the embargo in the key swing state of Florida:

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