US confiscates policeman’s Cuban cigar cash

Denmark is to investigate after the US confiscated a policeman’s DKK 137,000 (EUR 18,423) deposit for Cuban cigars bought from Germany.

According to the Berlingske newspaper, the United States took Funen Police Officer Torben Nødskou’s money as they felt the transaction fell foul of their trade embargo against Cuba, which was imposed in 1960 when private property owned by Americans was nationalised by Fidel Castro.

”I do not feel it is reasonable for the United States to act against European companies in a case like this in which we have a legal transfer of funds between two European companies,” Denmark’s foreign minister Villy Søvndal told Berlingske. He added that the EU is against the embargo and that he will investigate the matter further.

Nørskou sent the money to a Hamburg company via the local Totalbanken in Funen, but the funds never reached the intended recipients as they were intercepted en route by US authorities. The Justice Department then refused to give the money back to the policeman in January.

Comments are closed.