hearing on the matter is set for Monday . In its motion , the government asked that Chiquita Brands International be fined and sentenced to probation , as well as being required to implement an effective ethics program in connection with the company 's guilty plea , Boyd said . Federal prosecutors accused the Cincinnati-based company of paying more than $ 1.7 million to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia , a right-wing paramilitary group , in two parts of Colombia where the company grew bananas . The payments to the group , known as the AUC , went through the company 's Colombian subsidiary , Banadex , from 1997 to 2004 , according to court documents filed in the case . Court papers also say Chiquita paid Colombia 's two leftist guerrilla groups , the FARC -LRB- Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -RRB- and ELN -LRB- National Liberation Army -RRB- from about 1989 to 1997 . At the time , according to court documents , those groups controlled areas where the company grew bananas . The AUC , FARC and ELN are all combatants in Colombia 's decade-long civil war , and all have been designated as terrorist organizations
WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Banana producer Chiquita will pay a $ 25 million fine and serve five years ' probation for once paying millions of dollars to groups in Colombia considered by the U.S. to be terrorist organizations , a Department of Justice spokesman said Tuesday . A worker at a banana plantation in Santa Maria , Colombia , in December 2000 . In so doing , the banana producer avoided prosecution for the company 's now-defunct payoff of Colombian terrorists protecting its most profitable banana-growing operation , according to terms of a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department . If approved by U.S. courts , the $ 25 million fine would represent the largest U.S. criminal penalty ever imposed under federal global terrorism sanction regulations , said Justice spokesman Dean Boyd . The regulations prohibit transactions with people who commit , threaten to commit or support U.S.-designated terrorists and establish penalties for doing so . Attorneys from the Justice Department 's National Security Division and federal prosecutors for the District of Columbia filed a joint sentencing motion Tuesday asking the court to accept the plea agreement , which was reached March 19 , Boyd said . A