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In April 2003, Chiquita Brand International's Audit Committee Chairman Roderick Hills met with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to disclose the company's participation in making payments to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia, in exchange for the safety of its Colombian subsidiary employees. Hills expected that the government would understand its actions in Colombia and levy fewer penalties. US Department of Justice Attorney Michael Chertoff's response to Chiquita, however, was ambiguous. Chiquita then decided to sell its Colombian operations, but its management there insisted that a failure to make one last payment before the sale was consummated would create a severe risk that some employee would be killed.
• To help students understand and better deal with diverse challenges presented to multinational companies such as Chiquita. • To help students identify and resolve conflict between conducting ethical business and abiding with the rule of law. • To explore Chiquita’s alternatives to handling the situation and to understand how deciding to make the initial payment launched a cycle from which there was only a bad exit—the proverbial “slippery slope.” • To acknowledge that self-reporting may make a situation worse, but it doesn’t mean it should not be done. • To help students better learn and understand how to justify the cost of doing business in a foreign country.