IMG Academy Fined $1.7M for Accepting Drug Cartel Leaders’ Children

IMG Academy Fined $1.7 Million by U.S. Treasury for Sanctions Violations

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has fined IMG Academy, a Florida-based boarding school and athletic training facility, $1.7 million for apparent violations of U.S. Counternarcotics sanctions. The violations stemmed from the school’s acceptance of tuition payments from individuals with ties to a Mexican drug cartel over a five-year period.

According to OFAC, between 2019 and 2025, IMG Academy entered into yearly tuition agreements with two individuals sanctioned under U.S. Counternarcotics laws, and repeatedly processed payments related to the education of their children. The school is located in Bradenton, Florida.

The $1.72 million settlement reflects OFAC’s assessment that the alleged violations were not severe and were not voluntarily disclosed by IMG Academy. However, the agreement also acknowledges the school’s cooperation with the investigation and the corrective measures implemented after becoming aware of the potential issues.

OFAC identified 89 apparent violations of sanctions programs related to narcotics trafficking, all originating from financial transactions covering tuition and other school expenses for the students in question.

The agency emphasized that this enforcement action underscores the importance of robust, risk-based compliance controls across various sectors, including education, to prevent sanctions violations and to prevent illicit actors from benefiting from access to the U.S. Financial system.

Background and Details of the Alleged Violations

IMG Academy provides elite academic and athletic training opportunities to student-athletes from the United States and internationally, through full-time boarding programs, professional training programs, camps, online training services, and college sports recruitment resources. The school’s student body includes athletes from around the world, and it maintains offices or recruitment representatives in Mexico, China, Japan, and South Korea.

The individuals involved in the violations have been designated as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) by the Treasury Department. These individuals, referred to as SDN 1 and SDN 2, were sanctioned under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (FNKA) for providing financial support and services to a sanctioned Mexican-based drug cartel and/or its principal leader.

SDN 1

According to the Treasury Department, one leader of a Mexican cartel enrolled his son at IMG Academy for studies between 2018 and 2023, a period culminating in the student’s graduation from the institution. In January 2018, SDN 1 enrolled his son (“Student-Athlete 1”) in one of IMG Academy’s boarding programs and entered into a Tuition Enrollment Agreement (TEA) with the school.

For the following five academic years, IMG Academy and SDN 1 renewed their TEA annually until Student-Athlete 1 graduated in the spring of 2023. Payment obligations under each TEA ranged from $47,026 per semester to $98,867 for a full academic year of enrollment. These payments were made routinely over several school years without detection that the payer was sanctioned. OFAC stated that basic due diligence at any point would have identified the client as a sanctioned individual, preventing multiple violations over that period.

SDN 2

In a separate case, another individual sanctioned for narcotics trafficking secured enrollment for his son at the same academy between 2020 and 2022 by paying annual tuition exceeding $100,000. OFAC explained that SDN 2 enrolled his son (“Student-Athlete 2”) in one of IMG Academy’s boarding programs in July 2020 and entered into a TEA with the school.

Over the next two academic years, IMG Academy and SDN 2 renewed their TEAs annually for each subsequent academic year until Student-Athlete 2 withdrew from the program in June 2022. Payment obligations under each TEA ranged from $100,549 to $102,235 for each full academic year of Student-Athlete 2’s enrollment. Each TEA required SDN 1 and SDN 2 to be unconditionally responsible for paying their respective son’s account, including tuition, room and board, and other expenses incurred during their attendance.