An administrative law judge slapped a $5,250 fine Thursday on a Michigan couple who say they went to Cuba in 2001 on a religious mission.
Michael and Andrea McCarthy, devout Catholics from Port Huron, said they brought medicines and prayed with a group of nuns in Havana. They went to Cuba, they said, because their belief in Jesus Christ requires them to help those in need.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees enforcement of the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba, wanted the McCarthys to pay $9,750 in fines. But in a decision released Thursday, Administrative Law Judge Irwin Schroeder, on loan from the Federal Maritime Commission, said that was too high because of the McCarthys' "limited ability to pay."
Michael McCarthy is a physician's assistant and Andrea McCarthy is a registered nurse.
Schroeder did say that the McCarthys committed a serious "violation of the law."
A spokeswoman said the Treasury Department did not want to comment on the decision.
But at a penalty hearing in December, Michael Neufeld, a Treasury attorney, testified that the McCarthys spent only a fraction of their almost weeklong trip in Cuba on religious activities.
Thursday's decision upset Michael McCarthy, who was hoping for a lower fine.
"I'd been hoping for zero because I'd been hoping for more wisdom on the part of the authorities," he said. "It's another punitive thing that tries to keep people afraid of each other in the two countries."
Both he and his wife said they did not regret their trip.
The McCarthys' attorney, Kurt Berggren, said he would look into appealing the decision.