Moral high ground or expedient choice

The Fresh Talk poll question this week provides you, the reader, a hypothetical scenario that in imperfect but in obvious ways mirrors the choices Chiquita faced in Colombia. Beginning in 1997 and continuing for seven years, Chiquita (or its subsidiary) paid right wing terrorist groups about $1.7 million for protection money. In previous years, four of the company's employees had been killed in two incidents. After eventually deciding to tell the Justice Department of its actions, the company plead guilty to a single felony count and paid a $25 million fine to the government for a violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. A good treatment of the hard choices faced by Chiquita and the legal history of the episode can found in at this link for Corporate Counsel magazine. Thanks to Luis of the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group who found the piece some time back.