Miami-Dade tax collector asks feds to look into company with possible financial ties to Cuba

Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez asked federal officials on Wednesday to look into a company with local ties that “may be engaging in financial arrangements” with Cuba.

Fernandez said in a news release that he was “deeply concerned by reports indicating that a company with local ties may be engaging in financial arrangements that involve or benefit the Cuban regime.”

He did not name the business in the release, but went on to say that “any activity that could place money, operational control, or financial leverage in the hands of a communist dictatorship that systematically oppresses its people and aligns itself with hostile regimes such as Venezuela, Iran, and Russia must be subject to the highest level of scrutiny.”

“Remittances are meant to support families and provide humanitarian relief, not to strengthen or legitimize an authoritarian government or its state controlled financial apparatus,” the statement reads. “United States law is clear that commercial and financial activity involving Cuba is heavily restricted and permitted only under narrow and explicit federal authorization. Foreign approval or participation does not override those legal obligations.”

Fernandez said he was urging federal authorities to review the matter and take any necessary action “to prevent U.S. based entities from contributing, directly or indirectly, to the financing or empowerment of an oppressive regime.”

This statement comes after Fernandez’s announcement last week that he revoked the licenses of 20 businesses suspected of engaging in trade with the Cuban regime.

“As a Cuban emigrant, I know firsthand the suffering inflicted by the Cuban communist regime. That regime has been, is, and will continue to be a threat to the national security of the United States, and Miami-Dade County will not be used as a platform to finance or sustain it,” Fernandez wrote in that release.

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