US authorities are investigating whether documentary maker Michael Moore broke laws when he went to Cuba for a new movie about US health care.
Documentary film maker Michael Moore. Image: Reuters.
In a letter posted on Thursday on Moore's website, the US Treasury Department warns Moore that US citizens are barred from traveling to the communist country without government approval, and officials are concerned he went there in March 2007 without proper authorisation.
Violating the law "may result in civil and/or criminal penalties," the letter said.
Stamped May 2nd, the letter asks for details about travel dates, people on the trip and reasons Moore might qualify for a journalist licence to go to Cuba.
A spokesman for Moore declined to comment on what the filmmaker was doing in the foreign country but said recent news reports about Moore taking victims of the September 11th attacks on New York's World Trade Centers to get care in Cuba were inaccurate.
In a response on Moore's website, Meghan O'Hara, the producer of the new film called SiCKO, said investigation was politically motivated.
US restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba are an extension of the 1962 US embargo against the communist country.
An Oscar winner for the 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine, Moore first gained fame with 1989's Roger & Me, which looked at carmaker General Motors's layoffs of factory workers in Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan.
Fahrenheit 9/11proved his biggest hit, raking in $222 million at worldwide box offices in 2004. It attacked Mr Bush's actions following the September 11th attacks, as well as the US president's handling of the Iraq invasion.