ADM Informant Whitacre Indicted

A federal grand jury returned a sweeping 45-count criminal indictment against Mark Whitacre, a former vice president of Archer-Daniels-Midland and the chief informant in a major antitrust investigation of the giant agribusiness concern. Whitacre was charged with wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, money laundering, forfeiture, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and filing false income tax returns. The indictment charges Whitacre with stealing more than $9 million from ADM from the spring of 1991 through November 1995. He served as president of ADM’s bioproducts division and as a vice president of the parent company until the summer of 1995. The indictment was returned in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Ill., the Justice Department said. Whitacre, 39, now lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., and earlier this week sued the FBI agent in charge of the government case, claiming the agent ordered the destruction of tapes that could have been beneficial to ADM.