Workers deny Dole defrauding conspiracy

[Judi Lynn]

Workers deny Dole defrauding conspiracy
May 15, 2010
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Several banana workers denied Friday they were part of a conspiracy to defraud Dole Foods Co. by falsely claiming in a damage lawsuit to have worked on a banana plantation and been made sterile by pesticides.

Seven workers at a news conference in Nicaragua, where the contamination allegedly occurred in the 1970s, accused Dole of having tricked or bribed them into casting doubt on claims in the suit that led to a $2.3 million judgment against the company.
They said they wrongly agreed to testify on behalf of Dole in a court case under way in Los Angeles that there had been a fraud in the recruiting or testing of some of the plaintiffs in the suit.

“They tricked and bribed humble farmworkers who, out of poverty, agreed to lie to overturn the ruling,” said lawyer Antonio Hernandez. About 1,000 former workers gathered for the Friday event.

A judge in Los Angles is considering throwing out the 2007 damages award for workers exposed to the pesticide DBCP. Some of the workers involved in the U.S. lawsuit against Dole were later found either not to have been made sterile by pesticides or never to have worked at the company’s plantations.

Francisco Cano Centeno, 50, who said he worked as a plantation foreman, said Dole offered him money to testify in the latest court case.

More:
http://www.suntimes.com/business/2277360,dole-foods-defraud-conspiracy-051510.article