Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Alan Gross Settles Suit on ‘Risky’ Work in Cuba

An American contractor imprisoned in Cuba has settled a lawsuit in which he accused the company he was working for when he was arrested and the U.S. government with failing to warn him about the risks of working on the communist-controlled island.

Alan Gross and his wife Judy filed the $60 million lawsuit in November 2012 against the U.S. government and Development Alternatives Inc, a Bethesda, Maryland, contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The suit claimed Gross, 64, should have been given better information and training for his work increasing Internet access and the flow of communications. Gross was working for Development Alternatives under a contract with USAID.

The settlement with Development Alternatives was filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington. The terms were not disclosed. The U.S. government is not included in the settlement.

Gross has been jailed in Cuba since December 2009. He is serving a 15-year sentence for providing Internet gear to Jewish Cubans under a U.S. program that Cuba views as subversive. The United States insists Gross was merely helping the local population get connected as part of a democracy-building project.

Information is tightly controlled on the Caribbean island, Internet use is limited and visitors are not allowed to carry satellite technology.

Since his detention, Gross’ wife has said he had lost 100 pounds (45 kg), has had chronic arthritis pain and what could be a cancerous tumor beneath a shoulder blade.

Gross and his wife also sued New Jersey-based Federal Insurance Co in Maryland District Court in November 2012. They claimed that the company, part of Chubb Corp, had wrongfully refused benefits under what the suit cited as “a wrongful detention” clause.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.