CINCINNATI, March 14 (UPI) -- Banana distributor Chiquita Brands International said Wednesday it would pay a $25 million fine for paying a Colombian terrorist group for protection.
Payments to the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia bought protection for farmers in a volatile part of the country, Chiquita said.
The settlement resolves a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with Colombian terrorist organizations, the department said.
Federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati company paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the paramilitary group. Chiquita acknowledged the payments were wrong but said they were made "to protect the lives" of employees.
The rightist group -- which claims to protect local economic, social and political interests by fighting insurgents -- is responsible for massacres, kidnappings and other terrorist acts, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in 2005.
Chiquita made similar payments to the clandestine leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, prosecutors said.
"The payments made by the company were always motivated by our good-faith concern for the safety of our employees," Chiquita Chief Executive Fernando Aguirre said.
The agreement cannot take effect until it is approved by a federal court in Washington.
