A famous preparatory boarding school known for its elite sports programs agreed to pay almost $2 million to settle a potential liability lawsuit after allowing two students with alleged ties to a Mexican cartel to attend the institution.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that IMG Academy, based in Bradenton, Florida, continued processing tuition payments for the two students, resulting in 89 violations of counternarcotics sanctions over a four-year period. According to OFAC, the transactions allowed sanctioned individuals to conduct business with U.S. persons and access the U.S. financial system.
The Miami Herald reported that between 2019 and 2025, IMG Academy engaged in transactions involving the property or interests in property of the two individuals, entering into annual tuition agreements with the specially designated nationals and receiving and processing payments under those contracts.
"The settlement amount reflects OFAC's determination that IMG Academy's conduct was non-egregious and not voluntarily disclosed," the agency said in a statement.
Federal officials said IMG Academy received wire transfers from third parties in Mexico as part of the tuition arrangements. Although the school had the sanctioned individuals' names on file, it failed to conduct proper sanctions screening, the outlet noted.
In a statement provided to the Bradenton Herald, IMG Academy said it disclosed the matter to OFAC once it became aware of the issue and has since implemented additional screening procedures.
"IMG Academy is committed to maintaining the highest standards of compliance and integrity in all aspects of our operations. Between 2018 and 2022, IMG Academy did not have an OFAC sanctions compliance program in place and entered into tuition enrollment agreements and collected fees from two individuals who were unknowingly on OFAC's SDN List," the school said.
According to the Miami Herald, in 2018 one individual enrolled a child in IMG's boarding program and paid up to $98,867 annually for five years. In a separate case in 2020, another individual designated by OFAC enrolled a child in the boarding program for two years, paying up to $102,235 per year. Tuition payments were made through third-party wire transfers from individuals in Mexico as well as credit cards on file for each student.
OFAC recommended that institutions like IMG screen students, counterparties and payers against the agency's Specially Designated Nationals list to determine whether they are conducting business with sanctioned individuals.
"This case highlights the pervasiveness of sanctions risk across a wide variety of sectors and institutions," OFAC said. "Even for entities operating largely domestically, the presence of international touchpoints creates opportunities for impermissible dealings with sanctioned actors, inadvertently or otherwise."
© 2025 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
