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.
The over-reach of the embargo is absurd, but the American people’s lack of knowledge, and their lack of wanting to know how their government behaves, is truly frightening. Every day I come across educated professionals who know nothing about this, and don’t want to know.
His bank sent this in US dollars. And that’s why it was taken.
Of course its outrageous but that’s the depth that US has plunged to since all this nonsense realtime monitring of bank wires since 2001 through this FinCen and this FATF.
The United States government does do every thing it can to make USD unattractive to foreigners.
And without foreigners using it they are toast. ( Well they are toast already but toast much faster with bone headed criminal stealing like from this Danish policeman. )