Chiquita and the U.S. Department of Justice

Abstract

In April 2003, Chiquita Brand International's Audit Committee Chairman Roderick Hills met with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to disclose the company's participation in making payments to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia, in exchange for the safety of its Colombian subsidiary employees. Hills expected that the government would understand its actions in Colombia and levy fewer penalties. US Department of Justice Attorney Michael Chertoff's response to Chiquita, however, was ambiguous. Chiquita then decided to sell its Colombian operations, but its management there insisted that a failure to make one last payment before the sale was consummated would create a severe risk that some employee would be killed. Excerpt UVA-BRI-1006 Feb.7, 2012 CHIQUITA AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE This kind of conversation happens all the time. When you have a problem, you get on a plane with your lawyers to Washington and talk to the official involved and say, “We have a problem.” That's the drill. —James D. Cox, Duke University law professor Chiquita's Board Transition . . .