Rats in the Grain: The Dirty Tricks and Trials of Archer Daniels Midland, the Supermarket to the World

by James B Lieber

Overview

Beneath the wholesome image of Archer Daniels Midland lie some of the dirtiest practices in American business: price-fixing, bribery, and cover-ups. Unfolding like a legal thriller, Rats in the Grain portrays the crime and punishment of ADM during the largest white-collar criminal trial of the 1990s. James Lieber profiles the witnesses, the defense lawyers and federal prosecutors, the inner workings of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, and the unpredictable mole Lieber had access to. "A detailed account of how an influential corporation can go rotten." — The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568582184
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	01/10/2002
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

James B. Lieber is the author of Friendly Takeover: How an Employee Buyout Saved a Steel Town. He lives in Pittsburgh.

Table of Contents

	Preface	XIII
Part I	The Raid
Chapter 1	The Mole	3
Chapter 2	The Special Committee and the Gadfly	19
Chapter 3	Skirmishing	33
Chapter 4	Revenge	45
Part II	The Roots
Chapter 5	From Andy's Feed to the "Supermarket to the World"	71
Chapter 6	ADM: Politics, Money, and Trouble	81
Chapter 7	The Rise and Fall and Rise of Antitrust	101
Part III	The Trial
Chapter 8	Shaping the Table	121
Chapter 9	Spinning	133
Chapter 10	Mimoto	143
Chapter 11	Ikeda	165
Chapter 12	White Rats	181
Chapter 13	The Handler	195
Chapter 14	The Windup	219
Chapter 15	The Pitch	247
Part IV	The Cover-Up
Chapter 16	The Hit	283
Chapter 17	The Mole--Part Two	297
Chapter 18	The Score	311
	Afterword to the Paperback Edition	335
	Appendices
Appendix 1	ADM--Time Line of Major Events	345
Appendix 2	Cast of Characters	349
Appendix 3	Soft Money Donations from ADM 1995-1999 and ADM Political Action Committee	353
Appendix 4	Major Cases Involving ADM	363
	Notes	377
	Selected Bibliography	401
	Index	407

Editorial Reviews

Agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, which bills itself as "supermarket to the world," had its wholesome image tarnished in 1998 when a federal trial in Chicago found two of its top executives guilty of fixing prices with the firm's competitors; each got two years in prison. The FBI informant who put them there, Mark Whitacre, former president of ADM's bioproducts division, secretly made audio and video tapes of ADM meetings. According to Whitacre, ADM's bizarre unofficial motto was: "The competitor is our friend and the customer is our enemy." Thanks to Whitacre, ADM in 1996 agreed to pay a record antitrust fine of $100 million for price-fixing schemes that cost consumers much more than inflated prices for soft drinks, detergents, poultry and other products. Amazingly, Whitacre, who himself pleaded guilty in 1997 to money laundering and tax fraud, got a far more severe penalty--nine years in prison--than the corporate crooks he exposed. In this thoroughgoing, devastating expos , Lieber (Friendly Takeover) suggests one reason for this disparity may be that ADM, a premier beneficiary of federal subsidies and tax loopholes, is a politically well-connected behemoth whose law firm had unbridled influence at the Justice Department. The book's centerpiece, a labyrinthine re-creation of the 1998 trial, includes testimony alleging that ADM used prostitutes to gather information on competitors, that it set up phony trade associations as camouflage and that it stole technology by bribing rival companies' employees. Lieber meticulously serves up a seamy stew of sex, lies and videotape, revealing corruption that taints an entire industry. Photos include stop-action shots from the FBI tapes. (Aug.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In the summer of 1995, US agents searched the headquarters of the giant corporation and political campaign donor, and charged it with fixing markets worldwide; a month later the whistleblower was characterized as mentally ill and publicly pilloried. The media averted its gaze, and the public quickly glowed again under the fuzzy commercials about feeding the world's hungry. Pittsburgh lawyer Lieber, who has written widely about social and political issues, stayed on the case. He reports. This is a paper edition reprint of a work first published in 2000. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews