Details of Justice Department Charges Against Chiquita Brands for Terrorist Dealings

By Andrew Cochran

The Justice Department has charged Ohio-based Chiquita Brands International with doing business with a terrorist organization in Colombia, the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces (AUC). DOJ also provided information on Chiquita's dealings with two other terrorist groups there, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN). The move could be part of a settlement with Chiquita, which announced in a corporate filing in February that it was reserving $25 million for a settlement with the DOJ.

DOJ's filing with the U.S. federal court in Washington (Acrobat file supplied by the great research team at the Investigative Project on Terrorism) indicates that certain Chiquita officers made over 100 payments to the AUC, totaling over $1.7 million, from 1997 to early 2004. It has been illegal for any American to provide material support to the AUC since its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on September 10, 2001. The filing (an "information" often filed prior to a plea agreement) details the means and methods of numerous payments made by Chiquita officers under threat of violence issued by the AUC, even after the designation, and with the knowledge of Chiquita's senior executives. Upon learning of the payments in April 2003, the Chiquita Board of Directors promptly disclosed the matter to the Justice Department, according to the filing, but the unnamed officers continued the payments and created a separate set of books to hide the payments for 2003.

The DOJ filing also discloses that Chiquita also made payments to the FARC and ELN terrorist groups from 1989 to 1997. No charges were filed against Chiquita for those payments, as those groups were named Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 1997, after the payments ceased. Chiquita sold its Colombia operations in 2004, as urged by at least one board member upon learning of the illegal AUC payments.

On February 22, Chiquita released its earnings for the previous quarter and full year, and disclosed that it had entered into plea discussions with DOJ and reserved $25 million for payment of a fine over as many as five installments (see page 3 of this company press release). Based on the form of this DOJ filing, it appears that we'll see a court appearance and plea agreement announced with a few days.

The filing says that DOJ officials did not order Chiquita to cease the payments and "acknowledged that the issue of future payments was complicated." The DOJ decision to not demand immediate cessation of the payments will draw fire from commentators and perhaps from Congress. The plea agreement will also raise questions of favorable treatment of corporations compared to individuals in the same position.

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