Friday, December 26, 2014

U.S. Pays Alan Gross More Than $3 Million

12/26/2014

MIAMI – The U.S. government paid about $3.2 million to U.S. former contractor Alan Gross, who last week was released by Cuba after serving five years in prison there for subversive activities, local media outlets reported.

The U.S. Agency for International Development and the private firm Development Alternatives Inc., Gross’s former employer, came to an agreement this week to resolve the lawsuit filed in November 2012 against the U.S. government and DAI for “gross negligence” by Gross and his wife Judy.

The Grosses settled with DAI for undisclosed terms in May 2013, but a U.S. district court rejected their claim against the government, a ruling upheld in November on appeal.

“The settlement avoids the cost, delay and risks of further proceedings, and does not constitute an admission of liability by either party,” a USAID statement said.

Gross, 65, arrived back in the United States a few hours after the White House confirmed that the Cuban government had released him “on humanitarian grounds.”

In December 2009, while he was working as an employee for the Maryland-based DAI and as a subcontractor for USAID, Gross was arrested by Cuban authorities, who accused him of engaging in subversive activities.

On March 12, 2011, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for participating in a “subversive project of the United State Government” designed to “destroy” the Cuban revolution by distributing illegal computer systems to members of society on the communist island.

Gross appealed the sentence to the Cuban Supreme Court, which reviewed the case last July 22 but denied the appeal.


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