Chiquita Slips

I'll never put a Chiquita banana sticker on my nose again!

WASHINGTON -- Banana company Chiquita Brands International said Wednesday it has agreed to a $25 million fine after admitting it paid terrorists for protection in a volatile farming region of Colombia.

The settlement resolves a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels the U.S. government deems terrorist groups.

In court documents filed Wednesday, federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati-based company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials.

The AUC has been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia's civil conflict and for a sizable percentage of the country's cocaine exports. The U.S. government designated the right-wing militia a terrorist organization in September 2001.

..."The information filed today is part of a plea agreement, which we view as a reasoned solution to the dilemma the company faced several years ago," Chiquita's chief executive, Fernando Aguirre, said in a statement. "The payments made by the company were always motivated by our good faith concern for the safety of our employees."

...The payments were approved by senior executives at Chiquita, prosecutors wrote in court documents. Prosecutors said Chiquita began paying the right-wing AUC after a meeting in 1997 and disguised the payments in company books.

"No later than in or about September 2000, defendant Chiquita's senior executives knew that the corporation was paying AUC and that the AUC was a violent paramilitary organization," prosecutors wrote in Wednesday's court filing.

Company attorneys made it clear the payments were improper, prosecutors said.

"Bottom line: CANNOT MAKE THE PAYMENT," the company's outside counsel advised in February 2003, according to an excerpt of a memo included in court documents.

In April 2003, company officials and lawyers approached the Justice Department and told prosecutors they had been making the payments. According to court documents, the payments continued for months.

Say it ain't so, Chiquita!

On the company's website, there's a page that discusses corporate responsibility and "living by our core values."

Our Core Values provide the foundation for Chiquita's business conduct, in every location in which we operate around the world. Our Core Values are translated into action through our Company's Code of Conduct, which establishes clear standards for behavior that is ethical, legal, socially responsible, and in accordance with Company policy.

Among Chiquita's core values:

Integrity
We live by our Core Values.
We communicate in an open, honest and straightforward manner.
We conduct business ethically and lawfully.

Respect
We treat people fairly and respectfully.
We recognize the importance of family in the lives of our employees.
We value and benefit from individual and cultural differences.
We foster individual expression, open dialogue and a sense of belonging.

Hmm. Nothing about paying off terrorists.

So far, there's no press release or statement on the site regarding Chiquita doing business with terrorists or the $25 million settlement.

Maybe soon.

This is all very disturbing.

Does this mean that each time I purchased and ate a Chiquita banana I was promoting terrorism?

That's unsettling to say the least.