Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 15, 1995                   TAG: 9508150059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXECUTIVE INFORMANT TRIES SUICIDE

The Archer Daniels Midland Co. executive who turned informant in a price- fixing investigation, then found himself accused of embezzling $2.5 million, tried to kill himself last week, jeopardizing the government's case against the ``supermarket to the world.''

Mark E. Whitacre was rescued by his gardener after he drove his car into his garage in Moweaqua and left the engine running, a friend of the family said. As the garage filled with fumes, Whitacre used his car phone to leave his wife a last message on her answering machine, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Just before the suicide attempt, Whitacre sent a letter to the Journal that appears to link him to unusual business dealings. ``Regarding overseas accounts and kickbacks; and overseas payments to some employees,'' he wrote. ``Dig deep. It's there! They give it; then use it against you when you are their enemy.''

The suicide attempt came two days after ADM, dubbed the ``supermarket to the world'' because it supplies everything from steaks to soft drinks, fired Whitacre as president of the company's lucrative BioProducts Division for allegedly stealing at least $2.5 million from overseas accounts.

The 38-year-old executive who was once said to be in line to be the next president of ADM was in an unidentified Chicago-area hospital Monday. His condition was not immediately known.

In 1992, Whitacre became a government informant in a price-fixing investigation, taping microphones to his chest and carrying tiny video cameras into high-level meetings in the United States and abroad.

Alan Sykes, a University of Chicago law professor who specializes in antitrust cases, said the Justice Department's case against ADM and three other U.S. food processors could fall apart if ADM can convince a jury that the government's star witness is a crook and mentally unstable.

``It would certainly hurt his credibility as a witness,'' Sykes said. ``But if they've got tapes and documents and so on, it seems as though that evidence will stand on its own, regardless of the situation.''

ADM and three other U.S. grain processors have said they are being investigated for possible price-fixing in markets for citric acid; corn syrup, a sweetener used in soft drinks, chewing gum and flavored iced teas and juices; and lysine, an amino acid that speeds up growth in livestock.

No charges have been filed against ADM or the other processors - Staley Manufacturing Co., also based in Decatur; CPC International Inc. of Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; and Cargill Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn.