Company News: Chiquita settles Colombian terrorism probe for $25 million

Banana company Chiquita Brands International said Wednesday it has agreed to a $25 million fine after admitting it paid a Colombian terrorist group for protection in a volatile farming part of the country.

The settlement resolves a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company’s financial dealings with terrorist organizations in Colombia.

In court documents filed Wednesday, federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati-based company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

The AUC has been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia’s civil conflict and is responsible for a sizable percentage of the country’s cocaine exports. The right-wing group was designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization in September 2001.

Prosecutors said the company made the payments in exchange for protection. The company also made similar payments to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, according to prosecutors.

Colombia’s banana-growing region is a zone that has been viciously fought over by leftist rebels and far-right paramilitaries.

Details of the settlement were not included in court documents but Aguirre said it would pay $25 million in fines, which it set aside this year. The company reported the deal to the SEC. A plea hearing was scheduled for Monday.

“An appeal hearing has been set for federal prosecutors to make their case that former Wal-Mart vice chairman Tom Coughlin should have received a harsher sentence than home confinement for his guilty pleas to wire fraud and tax charges.

Oral arguments are set for April 12 before a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, according to court filings.

“Microsoft said Wednesday it will buy Tellme Networks Inc., which provides voice-enabled mobile search, directory assistance and computerized, speech-driven customer service hotlines.

Company officials declined to comment on a news report that set the value of the deal at about $800 million. In a note to investors, Credit Suisse analyst Jason Maynard estimated Microsoft will pay more than $1 billion. Microsoft Corp. said Tellme’s technology could be applied to a wide swath of products, including its market-leading Office suite and mobile search.