IMG Academy Settles with OFAC for $1.7 Million Over Counternarcotics Violations

IMG Academy, LLC has agreed to a $1.72 million settlement with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The penalty resolves 89 apparent violations of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations, involving the enrollment and tuition payments of children belonging to sanctioned leaders of a Mexican drug cartel.

The settlement, announced on 12 February 2026, highlights an oversight at the world-renowned institution. Between 2018 and 2022, IMG Academy repeatedly entered into Tuition Enrollment Agreements (TEAs) with two individuals on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. Despite these individuals using their real names, which provided an exact match on the SDN List, IMG Academy failed to conduct even “minimal due diligence,” according to Treasury officials.

Remediation and Leadership Change

Since the period of the violations, IMG Academy has undergone a transformation, following an ownership change in June 2023, the organisation appointed a new Chief Legal Officer who spearheaded a comprehensive compliance lookback.

“IMG Academy is committed to maintaining the highest standards of compliance and integrity.”

“Between 2018 and 2022, IMG Academy did not have an OFAC sanctions compliance program in place… Since that isolated incident, extensive measures have been taken to implement a comprehensive sanctions compliance program,” the school said in a statement. 

Commercial Fallout and Operational Gaps

The strategic failures at IMG Academy allowed high-ranking members of a transnational criminal organisation to access elite U.S. academic and athletic training.

Key findings from the investigation include:

• Direct Transactions: IMG Academy directly invoiced and communicated with the sanctioned parents (SDN 1 and SDN 2).
• Payment Methods: The school accepted wire transfers from non-designated third parties in Mexico and processed payments via credit cards on file.
• Contract Value: Tuition for each student ranged from approximately $97,000 to $102,000 per academic year.

OFAC designated the violations as “non-egregious” but noted that the disclosure was not “voluntary” because a federal investigation had already commenced by the time IMG Academy reported the issue.

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