Doctor fined up to $70,000 for buying Cuban dolphins

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

MIAMI–Graham Simpson, M.D., 53, in late August 2004 told
Miami Herald correspondent Charles D. Sherman that he is “negotiating
a fine of up to $70,000″ for violating the U.S. trade embargo against
Cuba by purchasing six wild-caught dolphins from Cuba to stock the
Dolphin Fantaseas swim-with-dolphins facilities that he and his wife
formerly owned in Antigua and Anguilla.
Originally from South Africa but now a naturalized U.S.
citizen, Simpson said several years ago that he traveled to Cuba
under a British passport, and paid $45,000 each for the six dolphins.
Simpson and his wife recently sold Dolphin Fantaseas to Dolphin
Discovery, of Cancun, Mexico.
Owned by U.S. citizens, Dolphin Discovery has purchased “at
least 33, maybe 70″ Cuban dolphins over the years, Dolphin Project
founder Ric O’Barry told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Having brought the Dolphin Fantaseas dolphin acquisition from
Cuba to light, O’Barry and Gwen McKenna of Toronto are now targeting
Dolphin Discovery.
“If they got even a $1 million fine, it would not put a dent
in that operation,” said O’Barry.
The Dolphin Project, now sponsored by the French group One
Voice, is currently “campaigning in the Cayman Islands trying to
keep Dolphin Discovery from expanding into that country,” said
O’Barry, who has been trying to end dolphin captivity since 1970.