One Hundred Forty-Five Nonprofits.
Two Federal Agencies.
One Sealed Indictment.
Federal investigators inside the Justice Department’s National Security Division and the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control are running parallel probes of US-based nonprofits, labor groups, and activist collectives allegedly coordinating a Cuba-aligned political influence campaign on American soil, according to Fox News Digital reporting published May 23, 2026. A Fox review identifies 145 such organizations with combined aggregate annual revenue of roughly $1,000,000,000— a figure that reflects the groups’ total revenue from all sources, not documented funding from the Cuban government.
The two probes look at distinct legal exposures. DOJ National Security Division is reviewing potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act — the statute that requires anyone acting in the United States as an “agent of a foreign principal” to register publicly with the Department. Treasury OFAC is reviewing potential violations of US sanctions against Cuba, including the new sanctions program President Donald Trump (R) created by Executive Order 14404 on May 1, 2026. No nonprofit or individual named in the Fox reporting has been charged. Each is presumed innocent. Each is referenced here only as the subject of an active federal inquiry that may or may not result in indictments.
The investigations sit alongside one set of formal charges that have been filed: on April 23, 2026, a federal grand jury in Florida returned a sealed seven-count indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, age 94, and five co-defendant Cuban military officers for the February 24, 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue Cessna aircraft in international waters — an attack that killed four US persons. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche (R) unsealed the indictment on May 20, 2026, at the Freedom Tower in Miami.
- 145orgsidentified in the Fox News Digital review · DOJ + OFAC parallel probes pending
- $1,000,000,000aggregate revenuecombined annual revenue across the 145 orgs · all-sources, not documented Cuban funding
- 0FARA chargesfiled to date against any named nonprofit or individual · presumption of innocence applies
- 1indictmentRaúl Castro + 5 Cuban military officers · April 23, 2026 · unsealed May 20 at the Freedom Tower
- EO 14404Cuba sanctionssigned May 1, 2026 · IEEPA-authorized · secondary-sanctions reach
- $100,000,000humanitarian offerfrom Washington to the Cuban people (Rubio, May 20, 2026)
According to Fox News Digital, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control are running parallel investigations into US-based nonprofits, labor unions, and activist organizations alleged to be coordinating with the Cuban government. The two reviews are formally distinct but rest on the same underlying factual record being assembled by an interagency Cuba-prosecution team that, per the Fox reporting, has been operating since mid-February 2026 and draws personnel from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, and Treasury OFAC.
The two statutes carry distinct exposures. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (22 U.S.C. §§ 611-621) requires anyone acting as an agent of a foreign principal — defined to include foreign governments, foreign political parties, and entities owned or controlled by them — to register publicly with DOJ within 10 days of entering into the agency relationship. Willful FARA violations are punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine per count. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1708), which underlies the new Cuba-sanctions executive order, carries higher penalties: willful violations are punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines into seven figures per count.
What has been filed: a federal indictment, returned April 23, 2026, against Raúl Castro and five named Cuban military officers for the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down. Seven counts total.
What has not been filed:any FARA charge against any US-based nonprofit or named individual identified in the Fox News reporting. Any OFAC enforcement action against any such organization. Any IRS revocation of any nonprofit’s tax-exempt status. The DOJ and Treasury reviews are at an investigative stage. Subjects have not been charged. Some may never be.
What this article does: reports what Fox News Digital reported, names the agencies running the probes, identifies the statutes under review, and lays out the underlying facts that are independently documented in OFAC, State Department, and DOJ records. Every named individual and organization is referenced as alleged or under investigation, never as guilty.
On May 1, 2026, President Donald Trump (R)signed Executive Order 14404, “Imposing Sanctions on Those Responsible for Repression in Cuba.” The order, authorized under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, creates a new Cuba-focused sanctions program administered by Treasury OFAC. It is the legal backbone of the OFAC probe referenced in the Fox reporting. The same authority gives the Treasury Secretary discretion to impose secondary sanctions on third-country persons or entities that materially assist designated parties — the same mechanism used in the Iran and Russia sanctions architectures.
Six days later, on May 7, 2026, OFAC designated Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA)— the Cuban military holding conglomerate that, according to multiple public estimates, controls roughly 40% of the Cuban economy — under the new EO. The designation freezes any US-jurisdiction assets and prohibits US persons from dealing with GAESA. The agency has not published a specific asset-freeze dollar figure, and Cuban government revenues administered through GAESA are not publicly itemized.
“Cuba is 100% operating a foreign influence operation in the U.S.”
Mike Gonzalez, Senior Fellow, Heritage Foundation · quoted in Fox News Digital, May 23, 2026
“Cuba is a prep school for revolutionaries.”
Mike Gonzalez, Senior Fellow, Heritage Foundation · quoted in Fox News Digital, May 23, 2026
On April 23, 2026, a federal grand jury in Florida returned a sealed indictment naming former Cuban President Raúl Castro, age 94, on seven counts: one count of conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of aircraft. The charges relate to the February 24, 1996 shoot-down of two unarmed Cessna 337 aircraft operated by the Miami-based humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue, attacked by Cuban Air Force MiGs in international airspace north of Cuba. Four US persons were killed: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.
The indictment also names five co-defendant Cuban military officers: Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez, Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, and Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche (R) unsealed the indictment on May 20, 2026, at the Freedom Tower in Miami — the historic site through which more than 650,000 Cuban refugees were processed in the 1960s and 70s. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), who vacated his Senate seat to join the cabinet, released a Spanish-language video the same day announcing a $100,000,000 humanitarian aid offer from the United States to the Cuban people.
“There was a warrant issued for his arrest, so we expect that he will show up here by his own will or by another way.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche (R) · Freedom Tower, Miami · May 20, 2026
Fox News Digital’s May 23 report identifies a cluster of US-based organizations it describes as the “most active” in mobilizing in support of the Cuban government. Each of the following is named in the Fox reporting as the alleged subject of the DOJ and OFAC reviews. None has been charged. Each is presumed innocent of any wrongdoing unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Nonprofits and activist collectives(Fox News Digital, May 23, 2026): ANSWER Coalition · BreakThrough News · CodePink · Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) · People’s Forum · Tricontinental Institute · Venceremos Brigade · Hatuey Project · Liberation News · National Network on Cuba · Global Exchange · National Lawyers Guild · African People’s Socialist Party.
Labor and political organizations identified: IAM Local 1484 · Roofers Local 36 · Communist Party USA · Democratic Socialists of America.
Individuals named in the Fox reporting(not criminal defendants; each presumed innocent of any wrongdoing): Medea Benjamin (CodePink co-founder) · Olivia DiNucci (CodePink DC coordinator) · Vijay Prashad (Tricontinental Institute executive director) · Manolo De Los Santos (People’s Forum executive director) · Hasan Piker (Twitch streamer, DSA member).
Editorial note:Fox News Digital’s reporting is the public record on which the federal investigations have been described. DOJ and Treasury have not issued a public statement listing organizational subjects. This article does not endorse the Fox characterization of any listed entity. The investigations are open; charges have not been filed against any of these organizations or individuals.
Fox News Digital also reports that David Ramírez Álvarez, identified as a Second Secretary at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., allegedly communicates specific US legislative priorities Havana wishes to see supported. The Cuban Embassy, in a statement quoted by Fox, denies any improper activity, citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and characterizing its outreach as routine diplomatic engagement with US civil society. Cuban deputy foreign minister Carlos F. de Cossío has issued public denials on Cuban state media. None of these statements has been tested under oath in any US judicial proceeding.
“Part of diplomatic work is to promote friendly relations and to interact with organizations and institutions of civil society.”
Cuban Embassy statement · paraphrased in Fox News Digital reporting · May 23, 2026
The political center of gravity on the indictment and the broader enforcement push sits in South Florida. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL-27), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, spoke at the Freedom Tower unveiling. Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL-28) — the only sitting member of Congress born in Cuba — released an official statement. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL-26), chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, has long held the appropriations gavel relevant to Cuba policy. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY-11), co-chair of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus, joined in support.
“Today marks the beginning of the end for the Castro family.”
Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL-27) · May 20, 2026 · Freedom Tower, Miami
Today marks the beginning of the end for the Castro family. The indictment of Raúl Castro at the Freedom Tower is justice 30 years in the making for Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales — the four American heroes shot down by the Cuban regime over international waters.
As the only sitting Member of Congress born in Cuba, I have lived under the boot of the Castro regime. Today's indictment by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is the message every Cuban family has waited a generation to hear: the United States does not forget, and the United States does not forgive murder.
Hoy anunciamos una oferta de $100 millones en ayuda humanitaria al pueblo cubano. No al régimen. Al pueblo. La libertad de Cuba es una prioridad de esta administración.
Cuba is 100% operating a foreign influence operation in the United States. The network of nonprofits, unions, and activist collectives the DOJ and Treasury are now reviewing did not appear in 2026. It has been built brick by brick for sixty years. The question is whether FARA and IEEPA will finally be enforced.
President Donald Trump (R) posted on Truth Social the day of the indictment unsealing and again following his May 1 signing of EO 14404. The May 20 post explicitly tied the Cuba enforcement effort to a broader hemispheric posture stretching, in his words, “from the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal.”
Today we are driving out lawlessness and crime and foreign encroachment from the shores of Havana to the banks of the Panama Canal. The Castro regime murdered four Americans over international waters in 1996, and for thirty years no administration moved. Today we move.
Verbatim quotation reproduced as reported · post id 115830428767897167
I signed today a powerful new Executive Order imposing sanctions on those responsible for repression in Cuba. The Cuban people deserve freedom. The Cuban regime, and its military conglomerate GAESA, will be cut off from the American financial system.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Paraphrased — May 1, 2026 statements on EO 14404
For readers asking what a fully prosecuted FARA case looks like, the closest recent example is the federal trial of former Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). On July 16, 2024, a Manhattan federal jury convicted Menendez on all 16 counts he faced — including bribery, extortion under color of official right, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent of the government of Egypt without registering under FARA. Menendez was the first sitting US senator ever convicted on FARA charges. He was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in January 2025. The Menendez verdict is the legal yardstick against which any of the DOJ’s current FARA Cuba reviews, if they mature into indictments, would be measured. That is a long “if.” The Cuba reviews are at an investigative stage. They may never produce a charge.
FARA exposure: failure to register as a foreign agent where required is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines per willful count. The statute also gives DOJ injunctive authority to compel registration.
OFAC / IEEPA exposure: willful violations of US sanctions against Cuba under the new EO 14404 program are punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and civil penalties into seven figures per transaction. OFAC can also impose secondary sanctions against third-country persons.
Tax-exempt-status exposure: the Internal Revenue Service may revoke 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) status for organizations engaged in political activity directed by a foreign principal. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration would coordinate any such revocation referral.
Reminder: none of these exposures has been triggered in this matter. No charges have been filed against any of the named nonprofits or individuals. Each remains presumed innocent.
Fox News Digital reports that one fundraising campaign — pitched around purchasing solar panels for shipment to Cuba — allegedly instructed donors, in written guidance, “Please do not write ‘Cuba’”on payment memos. According to OFAC compliance specialists cited in the report, such language is the kind of red flag federal investigators look for in sanctions-evasion structuring — the deliberate omission of jurisdiction information that would otherwise trigger compliance review at the donor’s financial institution. The instruction, if it appeared, is not in itself a charged offense. It is the kind of fact a prosecutor would have to prove, in context, was part of a knowing scheme. That has not been established.
The Fox reporting also notes the rapid online response from the Party for Socialism and Liberation following Blanche’s Freedom Tower announcement — a public mobilization post within roughly nine minutes of the press conference. Speed of response is not, on its own, evidence of unlawful coordination. It is a fact in the public record that may, or may not, become part of a charging document later. The DOJ has not described any such post in any filed pleading.
The Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down is the load-bearing fact in the only set of charges that has been filed. The political and legal architecture around the surrounding civil-society investigations has been built over three months in 2026.
Feb. 24, 1996— Cuban MiGs shoot down two Brothers to the Rescue Cessna 337 aircraft in international waters north of Cuba. Four US persons killed: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, Pablo Morales.
Mid-Feb. 2026— DOJ-led interagency Cuba prosecution team begins assembling, drawing personnel from FBI, DEA, ATF, HSI, and Treasury OFAC.
March 20, 2026— CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin arrives in Havana, per Fox reporting.
April 23, 2026— Federal grand jury in Florida returns sealed seven-count indictment against Raúl Castro and five Cuban military officers.
May 1, 2026— President Trump signs Executive Order 14404, “Imposing Sanctions on Those Responsible for Repression in Cuba.”
May 7, 2026— OFAC designates GAESA, the Cuban military conglomerate that controls an estimated 40% of the Cuban economy.
May 20, 2026— Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche unseals the Castro indictment at the Freedom Tower in Miami. Secretary Rubio releases a Spanish-language video announcing a $100,000,000 humanitarian aid offer to the Cuban people.
May 23, 2026— Fox News Digital publishes Asra Q. Nomani article identifying 145 US-based organizations as subjects of the parallel DOJ NSD and Treasury OFAC investigations.
One set of charges, on a thirty-year-old shoot-down, has been filed. Everything else — the 145 organizations, the named activists, the fundraising patterns, the diplomatic-cable allegations — sits at the investigative stage. DOJ National Security Division and Treasury OFAC have not indicted any of them. The Menendez conviction shows what a fully prosecuted FARA case looks like at the end. This story is at the beginning. The fact pattern being assembled is serious; the legal posture of every subject is unchanged: presumed innocent until and unless the United States files charges and proves them in a court of law.