Mr. Stalinski and his attorneys "are just trying to shake us down for money so that they'll go away " - Steven Warshaw, then Chiquita's vice president, in a 1995 Enquirer interview; Chiquita sued over alleged kidnap plot
Chiquita security forces tried to kidnap a former agent for a banana company competitor in Honduras in 1990, the agent contends in lawsuits filed in federal court in Cincinnati and the Inter-American Court in Washington D.C.Ernst "Otto" Stalinski, 47, a former consultant for Fyffes - an Irish banana company that did business in Honduras - filed suit in November in Cincinnati accusing Chiquita of fraud, attempted kidnaping, piracy, menacing and other charges. Chiquita officials have vigorously denied the allegations and Chiquita attorneys have filed a motion with the court to have the case dismissed.
Mr. Stalinski and his attorneys "are just trying to shake us down for money so that they'll go away," Steven Warshaw, then Chiquita's executive vice president, told the Enquirer in 1995.
The case, reported before by the Enquirer, has wallowed in Honduran courts for years but is now making its way toward trial in U.S. District Court.
In February, Mr. Stalinski's lawyers filed a similar case in the Inter-American Court which presides over international legal issues involving foreign countries. In both cases, Mr. Stalinski charges that Chiquita has corrupted Honduran judges through bribes and threats, in an effort to have his case dismissed. The cases are pending.
The lawsuits stem from 1990, when Mr. Stalinski began working for Fyffes in Honduras to woo banana growers whose contracts with Chiquita had expired. For decades, Chiquita has been the main banana multinational in Honduras.
The federal lawsuit names Chiquita, its main Honduran subsidiary - the Tela Railroad Company - and Chiquita's Chief of Security, Alejandro Bakoczy, as defendants.
The complaint alleges that Mr. Bakoczy, with orders from Chiquita officials, headed an effort to terrorize, kidnap and harm Mr. Stalinski. According to the complaint, Chiquita also allegedly hired paramilitary groups to destroy Fyffes' banana shipments and harass those growers under contract to supply bananas to Stalinski's company.
The lawsuit further alleges Chiquita was involved in the destruction of shiploads of Fyffes bananas that were stolen from its ships and destroyed by people working for Chiquita during Honduras' 1990 "banana wars" as they were called, according to Honduran court records.
In April 1990, three armed, uniformed men and an attorney working for Chiquita tried to arrest Mr. Stalinski at his hotel in San Pedro Sula, in northern Honduras, according to documents filed in the lawsuits. Mr. Stalinski said he escaped from the hotel with the aid of hotel employees.
In his lawsuits, Mr. Stalinski accused the group and Chiquita of using a trumped-up arrest order to try to kidnap and harm him. Chiquita has insisted that it had a valid arrest order charging Mr. Stalinski with stealing bananas.
Mr. Stalinski said the actions of Chiquita in Honduras "must be investigated to bring their secret actions into the spotlight of public scrutiny.
"Chiquita is a company that makes its own rules," he added. "Money is its driving force. They tried to kidnap me because I became an obstacle that needed to be removed."
If Mr. Stalinski's case does go to trial, it will be without the presence of a key witness in the case.
Carlos Guillermo Escobar Galeano, 34, was Mr. Stalinski's bodyguard at the time of the alleged incident and had helped Mr. Stalinski escape the alleged kidnaping. On March 24, Mr. Escobar, 34, was shot to death near his home. Mr. Stalinski said he had planned to use Mr. Escobar in the case. Mr. Escobar's assailants, who shot him nine times, remain at large.
Mr. Escobar, a former member of a Honduran military intelligence unit, worked for a furniture company at the time of his death. When Enquirer reporters visited Honduras for this project last year, they hired him as a driver. The Enquirer was referred to Mr. Escobar by a source in the Central Intelligence Agency.
In a statement issued through its attorneys, Chiquita told the Enquirer that "no Chiquita personnel were in any way involved in his (Mr. Escobar's) death, and any allegations or innuendo to the contrary would be outrageously false, irresponsible and defamatory."
Some allegations of the lawsuit filed against Chiquita by Otto Stalinski
"In order to protect its monopoly situation, Defendant Chiquita caused officers, employees, agents and representatives in Honduras, within the scope of their employment and authority and acting on behalf of Defendant Chiquita to:
a) threaten and intimidate plaintiff, as well as plaintiff's immediate superior and subordinates, with criminal violence;
b) engage in piracy by having Chiquita's paramilitary forces board ships that were being loaded with bananas under the supervision of the plaintiff in Puerto Cortes, Honduras;
c) at various times during this period, pursue with Chiquita's paramilitary forces, and subject to attackby gun fire from Chiquita agents, the plaintiff, as well as his subordinates and his superior in the Fyffes' organization; and
d) under color of the law of Honduras, cause fraudelent court orders to be issued and enforced by Honduran police at the airport of San Pedro Sula to physically arrest and confine Plaintiff."
(Copyright 1998)
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