Beyonce And Jay-Z To Face Investigation By US Officials Over Visit To Cuba?

8 April 2013, 09:19

The two stars could face legal ramifications if they failed to obtain the proper licence for their visit to the country.

Beyonce and Jay-Z have found themselves at the centre of a controversy surrounding their visit to Cuba this past week, after several US Congress representatives suggested their trip could be illegal.

The US forbids its citizens from travelling to the country for tourism purposes without a specific licence, and two US politicians have requested information as to whether the musical couple may have be in breach of this law.

'Love On Top' singer Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z opted to mark five years of marriage with a trip to the country, where they were spotted being swamped by fans in Havana as well as dining out and spending time together.

However, Republican Congress representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart are said to have written to the US Treasury on Friday (5th April) to query the couple's visit and questioned what type of licence they had applied for.

"As you know, US law expressly prohibits the licensing of financial transactions for 'tourist activities' in Cuba," the two Congress representatives wrote in their letter, reports Sky News. "Cuba's tourism industry is wholly state-controlled.

"Therefore, US dollars spent on Cuban tourism directly fund the machinery of oppression that brutally represses the Cuban people."

Check out a picture of Beyonce out and about in Cuba last week below (Credit: Getty):

Reports suggest Beyonce and Jay-Z could even face either civil or criminal charges if they are found to be in breach of the ban, with both fines and jail time as potential punishments for the crime.

Representatives for both Jay-Z and Beyonce have yet to comment on the controversy.