ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 7, 1996 TAG: 9612090016
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT KELLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal prosecutors have Mark Whitacre to thank for the evidence that helped prove their price-fixing case against grain-processing giant Archer Daniels Midland Co.
They also have Mark Whitacre to blame for enough plot twists and juicy allegations to fill a shelf of pulp novels.
The well-placed executive spent years secretly taping his ADM colleagues for the FBI before he was unmasked and fired last year.
But Whitacre himself was indicted for price fixing this week, along with three men he secretly taped. Feeling betrayed, he said he would no longer cooperate with prosecutors and hinted he has evidence of federal misconduct.
``He's kind of a mysterious figure,'' says Terry Howley, a stockbroker and mayor of ADM's hometown of Decatur, Ill. Howley, who often met with Whitacre and other executives of the agribusiness giant known as the ``supermarket to the world,'' says he still hasn't figured Whitacre out.
``Was he a white knight?'' Howley says. ``Most people around here reserve judgment on that.''
Since Whitacre's informant role became known, other revelations have surfaced as well: his secret, multi-million-dollar bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, and his suicide attempt interrupted by the gardener of Whitacre's estate near Decatur. He even says that for a time he was kidnapped by mysterious thugs.
Meanwhile, he has been fighting a high-stakes court battle on two continents.
To the chagrin of prosecutors, Whitacre has had frequent talks with reporters, often off the record, about his case. Some of Whitacre's friends, also speaking off the record, say what appears to be strange behavior is merely Whitacre's reaction to the pressure of a large and powerful company he believes is out to get him.
Whitacre's tapes played a large part in ADM's decision in October to plead guilty to fixing prices of lysine, a livestock feed additive, and citric acid, a food and detergent ingredient. ADM agreed to pay a record $100million fine and cooperate with prosecutors. Four Asian companies also have pleaded guilty in the case.
The glare of publicity during the past 16 months has shown a man who is seemingly a bundle of contradictions.
At the same time he was making tapes for the FBI, Whitacre was a rising star in ADM, head of its lucrative BioProducts division and widely regarded as a man who someday would run the company.
``It wasn't an easy task to live two lives like that,'' Whitacre said in a September interview. ``I had to lie to ADM every day. You're lying because you're not who they think you are.''
ADM fired Whitacre shortly after his role in the investigation became public last year. Whitacre says the pressure from that firing and what he calls constant harassment from ADM led him to try to kill himself by leaving his car running in a closed garage in August 1995.
``You don't think very logically when you get in a situation like that,'' Whitacre said. ``I felt this was a way to end it for the family. In reality, I was wrong. It was a rough couple of months, but overall it's worked out very well.''
While leading his double life for ADM and the FBI, Whitacre also was funneling millions of dollars into secret bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. ADM says Whitacre stole the money and is suing him both in Switzerland and the United States. Whitacre says the millions were part of an off-the-books bonus scheme approved by ADM management.
But Whitacre hadn't told his FBI contacts about the money, and revelations about the accounts angered federal authorities, Whitacre says. He says prosecutors told him the secret accounts violated the agreement to give him immunity from prosecution in return for his cooperation.
That's what apparently led to the indictment this week. Whitacre said in September that he had a deal to plead guilty to price fixing and shareholder fraud in return for lenient treatment at sentencing. That deal had fallen through by November, when Whitacre hired new lawyers and fought ADM's federal lawsuit with a countersuit claiming wrongful discharge and defamation.
Federal prosecutors are reluctant to talk about Whitacre, but are obviously unhappy with some of his actions. Scott Lassar, the Chicago prosecutor in the price-fixing case, told a reporter that some of Whitacre's allegations against ADM are ``not necessarily true.'' Lassar would not be more specific.
Whitacre has said he was naive when he first started working for the FBI and should have quit rather than becoming an informant. Up until he was fired, he says, he believed he would be running ADM someday.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB