Elite FL Sports Academy Fined $1.72M For Accepting Students With Mexican Drug Cartel Ties: OFAC

BRADENTON, FL — IMG Academy, an elite sports academy in Bradenton, will pay a $1.72 million fine for taking tuition payments from two students with Mexican drug cartel ties, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a news release.

The students attended IMG Academy between 2019 and 2025. Their tuition ranged from $98,867 to $102,235 for a full academic year.

During this time, the school received wire transfers from third-party individuals and entities in Mexico that went into its account at a U.S. bank as their tuition payments and also charged payments to credit cards on file for each student-athlete, the news release said.

IMG Academy racked up 89 violations of OFAC counternarcotics sanctions, the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations.

The school “demonstrated reckless disregard for U.S. sanctions requirements,” the office said.

When applying for the school, enrolling and signing tuition agreements, each student provided their full name and other personal information.

“Minimal due diligence at any point throughout this process would have revealed that these customers were sanctioned. This failure allowed numerous violations to occur over an extended period of time,” OFAC said.

By applying to and paying tuition to IMG Academy, “designated individuals who provided financial support and services to a sanctioned Mexican drug cartel were able to conduct commerce with U.S. persons and gain access to the U.S. financial system,” the office added. “This conduct allowed the children of two of the designated [drug trafficking organization’s] leaders to obtain elite academic and athletic training services in the United States.”

IMG Academy told The Athletic that the school didn’t have an OFAC sanctions compliance program in place to prevent such violations. Because of this, the school unknowingly enrolled and collected tuition fees from people on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals list.

“IMG Academy is committed to maintaining the highest standards of compliance and integrity in all aspects of our operations,” the school said in a statement to The Athletic. “Upon becoming aware of their status, we disclosed the matter to OFAC and fully cooperated with its investigation. Since that isolated incident, extensive measures have been taken by IMG Academy to implement a comprehensive sanctions compliance program.”