COMMENT: U.S. courts are to hear a suit against Chiquita Banana, the well-known banana importer with the cute “female singing banana” marketing icon. Charging that the company has colluded with both right and left-wing paramilitaries, drug smugglers and death squads, plaintiffs will be proceeding with their arguments. How far they are able to go may be limited by forthcoming Supreme Court proceedings. The firm was previously represented by Eric Holder (now Attorney General).
One wonders if the company’s involvement with these malefactors went farther than the legal arguments allege. Might the firm have helped bring some of the Colombian cocaine, heroin or marijuana into the U.S. and/or laundered money from the traffic?
EXCERPT: Chiquita, the global banana producer, was ordered this week to face a federal court over their role in paying off right wing death squads in Colombia. Villagers allege that the death squads used “random and targeted violence in exchange for financial assistance and access to Chiquita’s private port for arms and drug smuggling,” according to a lawsuit filed on their behalf by EarthRights International and Cohen Milstein. . . .
The law firm pursuing the claims appears to have a good track record. Let’s hope they’re not too ‘connected’.
“Agnieszka Fryszman, a Partner at Cohen Milstein, joined the Firm in 1998. She heads Cohen Milstein’s International Human Rights and Pro Bono practice.
Ms. Fryszman regularly litigates complex cases against corporate giants. She was a member of the legal team that successfully represented survivors of Nazi-era forced and slave labor against the German and Austrian companies that allegedly profited from their labor. These cases were resolved by international negotiations that resulted in multi-billion dollar settlements. She also represented, pro bono, Holocaust survivors suing Swiss banks that collaborated with the Nazi regime during World War II. This litigation led academics to revise their assessment of Switzerland’s relationship with Nazi Germany and exposed the extent of business participation in the Holocaust.”
@Dwight: It does sound like they’re pretty genuine to me too, though. Let’s hope our optimism pays off. =)
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