In a case that tests confidentiality provisions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Chiquita Brands International Inc. last week squared off against the agency in a potentially ground-breaking Freedom of Information Act suit before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Unlike a typical FOIA dispute, Chiquita doesn’t want to get information — it wants to prevent the SEC from giving it out. At issue: 23 boxes of company documents in the SEC’s possession that detail payments by Chiquita’s former Colombian subsidiary of to violent paramilitary groups. The SEC got the documents from Chiquita during two enforcement investigations.
