French Company Fined for Violating Blockade against Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 23 (acn) The United States Department of the Treasury imposed a fine on Monday on the French oil group CGG Services S.A. for violations of the regulations of the blockade against Cuba.

The fine amounts to 614,250.000 dollars and, according to the report of the Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), CGG Services S.A. and several of its subsidiaries provided services, spare parts and equipment of U.S. origin for oil and gas prospecting to vessels operating in Cuban waters in 2010 and 2011, Cubasi reported.
The report adds that the Venezuelan subsidiary of CGG Services S.A. in the United States carried out five transactions related to the processing of information for seismic research, conducted by a Cuban entity in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the island.
The OFAC report also confirms that the laws of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba for over 50 years are the main obstacle to the development of national economy, since it indicates that the transactions made by the French company "caused significant damage to the objectives of the program of sanctions by providing substantial economic benefit to Cuba."