UPI – by Ed AdamczykWASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (UPI) — Alan Gross, freed from imprisonment in Cuba last week, will receive a $3.2 million settlement from a U.S. government agency.
Gross, 65, was arrested in 2009 and accused of subversion for providing communications equipment to Cuba’s Jewish population. He was working for a company contracted to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The U.S. government maintained he was helping Cubans access the Internet in a democracy-building effort.
He served five years of his 15-year sentence and was released last week as a humanitarian gesture, as part of a normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.
The settlement, between USAID and Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), of Bethesda, Md., was announced Tuesday by USAID. It ends a claim by DAI of $7 million for unanticipated costs, currently under review by the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, and a $60 million lawsuit by Gross and his wife against the U.S. government and DAI. They settled with DAI for an undisclosed amount in 2013; their claim against the government was rejected by a U.S. district court.