CUBANO EMBARGO: Venmo Keeps Flagging Payments for Cuban Food As Potential U.S. Trade Violations.
BuzzFeed’s team tried divvying up the cost of a work lunch of Cuban sandwiches, and the app flagged a payment request simply described as “Cuban.” By way of explanation, Venmo told the site that it takes U.S. trade sanctions “seriously,” especially for money transfers involving “foreign countries … on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list maintained by the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.” Cuban could describe the cuisine you ate, or the money you’re secretly funneling to a communist dictator — hard to say, really. BuzzFeed says Venmo gives you 15 days to offer proof.
Just don’t order your lunch with a side of Russian dressing.