Moore faces investigation over Cuba trip
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is under investigation by the US Treasury Department for taking ailing September 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary Sicko, The Associated Press has learned.
The investigation provides another contentious lead-in for a provocative film by Moore, a fierce critic of US President George Bush.
In the past, Moore’s adversaries have fanned publicity that helped the filmmaker create a new brand of opinionated blockbuster documentary.
Sicko promises to take the health-care industry to task the way Moore confronted America’s passion for guns in Bowling For Columbine and skewered Bush over his handling of September 11 in Fahrenheit 9/11.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control notified Moore in a letter dated May 2 that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the US trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba.
“This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorising you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba,” Dale Thompson, OFAC chief of general investigations and field operations, wrote in the letter to Moore.
In February, Moore took about 10 ill workers from the Ground Zero rescue effort in Manhattan for treatment in Cuba, said a person working with the filmmaker on the release of Sicko.
Moore, who scolded Bush over the Iraq war during the 2003 Oscar telecast, received the letter on Monday.
Sicko premieres on May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Moore declined to comment, said spokeswoman Lisa Cohen.
After receiving the letter, Moore arranged to place a copy of the film in a “safe house” outside the country to protect it from government interference, said a person working on the release of the film.
Treasury officials declined to answer questions about the letter. “We don’t comment on enforcement actions,” said department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise.
The letter noted that Moore applied on October 12, 2006, for permission to go to Cuba “but no determination had been made by OFAC.”
Moore sought permission to travel there under a provision for full-time journalists, the letter said.
According to the letter, Moore was given 20 business days to provide OFAC with such information as the date of travel and point of departure; the reason for the Cuba trip and his itinerary there; and the names and addresses of those who accompanied him, along with their reasons for going.
Potential penalties for violating the embargo were not indicated.
