Chiquita: Court rejects bid to hide terror payment records

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., has ruled that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should release to the National Security Archive some 9,257 pages of records produced by Chiquita Brands International to the SEC as part of an investigation of the company’s illegal payments to a Colombian terrorist organization, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a group responsible for egregious acts of violence during Colombia’s civil war.

The National Security Archive is a non-governmental, pro-transparency organization and leading nonprofit user of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Chiquita had argued that release of the records under FOIA would deny it a fair trial in a Florida case brought on behalf of the AUC’s victims. Today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected Chiquita’s argument, writing that, “Neither the [Securities and Exchange] Commission nor the district court hearing this reverse-FOIA action thought release would deprive Chiquita of a fair trial. We agree with them.”

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