Criminal Justice
No More Charges in Chiquita Probe
Posted Sep 12, 2007, 10:04 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission will not be charged in connection with a banana company’s payments to a Colombian paramilitary group.
Prosecutors will not charge five officials with Chiquita Brands International Inc., including former SEC chair Roderick Hills, who had headed the company’s audit committee, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Hills disclosed the payments to Justice Department officials after he learned about them, ABAJournal.com noted in an earlier post. He believed the meeting resulted in a decision that the status quo could be maintained while the DOJ decided how to proceed.
Chiquita has agreed to pay $25 million in fines for aiding a foreign terrorist group; the company says it made the payments to protect its employees.