The food company Chiquita Brands International, Inc. [3] has pleaded guilty to funding a Colombian paramilitary group designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. According to U.S. Department of Justice [4] prosecutors, the company's Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, paid approximately $1.7 million to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 1997 and 2004. In its 2004 corporate social responsibility [5] report, Chiquita stated that it had been "forced" [6] to make the payments and had disclosed them to the Justice Department in early 2003. However, the Miami Herald reports [7] that senior managers authorised payments "even after outside attorneys advised the company to halt the flow of money." In June 2004, Chiquita sold Banadex. In a deal struck with prosecutors, but not yet accepted by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, Chiquita has agreed to pay a $25 million fine. The names of the executives who approved the payments would not be revealed.