Chiquita Fruit Co. Must Pay $25 Million Fine for Giving Money to Drug Cartels

The Justice Department said Tuesday it will not prosecute ten executives from Chiquita Brands International who were allegedly involved in the company's now-defunct payoff of Colombian terrorists protecting its most profitable banana-growing operation.^[1]

The government's long-awaited decision was part of a sentencing memo urging U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth to fine Chiquita $25 million and have the company serve five years probation for its illegal deals.^[2] The sentencing hearing in front of Lamberth is set for Sept. 17 and if it is accepted, the fine would mark the largest criminal penalty ever imposed under U.S. global terrorism sanctions laws.^[3]

Prosecutors dropped potential charges against the executives, "based solely on the merits and the evidence [against them]…..The government gave serious consideration to bringing additional charges in this matter, but in the exercise of its prosecutorial discretion, has decided not to do so after an extensive investigation and after considering critical evidence and information that Chiquita provided," said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd.^[4]

Fernando Aguirre, Chiquita's chairman and chief executive officer, asserted in a statement from its Cincinnati headquarters that the company was pleased with the decision, saying "We believe this is the right decision and one that reflects the good faith efforts of the company — and its officers, directors and employees — to address a very difficult situation involving the lives and safety of our employees.”^[5]

Chiquita voluntarily alerted the Justice Department in April 2003 of the deals, which by that time had been ongoing for 15 years.[6] The banana company admitted to paying about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials.^[7]

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.^[8] The U.S. government designated the AUC a terrorist group in September 2001.^[9] However AUC are not the onlygroup to receive banana money; Chiquita made additional payments to the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as control of the company's banana-growing area shifted.^[10]

Court documents list 10 unidentified company employees initially suspected of participating in the illegal deals and helped conceal them on company books.^[11] Former Chiquita general counsel Bob Olson has been identified as one of the 10; his federal criminal defense lawyer, Robert Litt, said Olson helped in Chiquita's decision to report the deals to the Justice Department as well.^[12] "No reasonable person could consider this criminal conduct….[Chiquita] was extorted by paramilitary terrorists who threatened the lives of its employees." Litt said Tuesday.^[13]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has previously written about the problem of U.S./Colombian narco-terror in his transnational crimes blog, these posts can be found here

---

^[1] Lara Jakes Jordan, No Terror Charges for Chiquita Execs, Associated Press Newswire, September 12, 2007, available at available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.
^[12] Id.
^[13] Id.