Criminal Justice
Ex-SEC Chair Investigated
Posted Aug 16, 2007, 07:19 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Prosecutors are considering whether to charge a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with a banana company’s payments to a Colombian paramilitary group, the New York Times reports.
Former SEC chair Roderick Hills was a director on the board of Chiquita Brands International when he disclosed the protection payments to Michael Chertoff, who was then director of the Justice Department’s criminal division. Hills had urged the disclosure, but was concerned that an abrupt end to the payments could put Chiquita employees in danger.
Accounts of what happened at the meeting differ. Court papers filed by the Justice Department say Hills was informed the payments were illegal and must be stopped, the Times says. But Chiquita contends Chertoff, now leader of the Department of Homeland Security, instead said he would get back to Hills and other Chiquita officials, something he never did.
Hills’ lawyer, Brian Heberlig, defended his clients’ actions.
“Rod Hills led Chiquita’s prompt and voluntary disclosure of these payments to the Department of Justice and had a reasonable basis to believe that Chiquita could maintain the status quo while the department considered the complicated issues at stake,” he told the Times. “We find it unbelievable that the department would now consider prosecuting Mr. Hills under these circumstances.”