IMG Academy pays settlement in Mexican cartel case. Here’s 5 things to know

IMG Academy in Bradenton agreed to pay $1.7 million after it took tuition payments linked to people under U.S. sanctions.

Federal officials said the school should have caught the issue sooner by screening who was paying the tuition for the two student-athletes.

SEE FULL STORY: IMG Academy fined after allowing students with Mexican cartel ties, feds say

Here are the highlights:

• The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said IMG’s tuition transactions led to 89 apparent sanctions violations over four years. The case involved two student-athletes whose payers had ties to a sanctioned Mexican drug cartel network.
• OFAC said two “specially designated nationals” were sanctioned under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. Officials said the payments let sanctioned people access commerce with U.S. businesses and the U.S. financial system.
• The agency said IMG received wire transfers from third parties in Mexico and also charged credit cards kept on file. OFAC said IMG had the names tied to the payments but did not run sanctions screening checks.
• IMG said it did not have an OFAC compliance program from 2018 to 2022 and did not know the individuals were on the SDN list at the time. The school said it disclosed the issue and cooperated once it learned about the problem.
• OFAC said IMG showed “reckless disregard” because it failed to screen counterparties, even if IMG lacked direct knowledge of the sanctions. The agency said IMG later took remedial steps, including a new risk-based compliance program after an ownership change in 2023.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in the Bradenton Herald newsroom. The full story in the link at the top was reported, written and edited entirely by Bradenton Herald journalists.