Yes, We Have No Bananas
Ex-Chiquita Execs Won't Face Bribe Charges
By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 12, 2007; A04
The Justice Department notified Chiquita Brands International yesterday that it will not seek to criminally charge its former top executive and other former high-ranking officers over the company's payment of bribes to a Colombian organization on the State Department's list of terrorist groups.
The multibillion-dollar banana company pleaded guilty earlier this year to making $1.7 million in illegal payments to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group from 1997 to 2004. Until now, three of its officers were under investigation for authorizing and approving the payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC, after federal prosecutors warned them in April 2003 that such bribes violated the nation's anti-terrorism laws.
"The United States gave serious consideration to bringing additional charges in this matter," prosecutors wrote in a memo f…