What would you do given the current situation?
1. Charge Mr. Hills. He knew that it was against U.S. policy to have dealings with terrorist organizations.
2. Fine the company $25 million. The company should have folded its operations in Colombia rather than make payments to a terrorist organization.
3. Don't charge Mr. Hills. He was trying to protect his employees' lives and he fully disclosed the company's actions to U.S. authorities.
Assume that you are on a grand jury in the United States and you are debating whether to file charges against Roderick Hills, former head of Chiquita Brands International Inc.'s audit committee and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The case involves payments that the company made to a violent Colombian group that has been determined by the U.S. government to be a terrorist group. Mr. Hills was in charge of the company's audit committee during the time of the payments. The facts of the case indicate that "a paramilitary organization had threatened to kidnap or kill employees on the banana farms of Chiquita's Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, and Chiquita was concerned that its employees could be harmed if it cut the payments immediately." Mr. Hills and other executives viewed the expense payments as "security payments" that were saving employees' lives. "Lawyers familiar with the case say Mr. Hills and Mr. Olson [former general counsel] believe senior Justice Department officials understood this and were deferring any demand to stop the payments to the United Self-Defense Forces, known by its Spanish abbreviation AUC. Chiquita ultimately paid $1.7 million over seven years." Chiquita never hid the payments from its accountants or Ernst & Young, its auditor.