FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         CRM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1997                        (202) 514-2008
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
                                 
               FORMER ADM OFFICIAL MARK E. WHITACRE
                   INDICTED ON CRIMINAL CHARGES

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A federal grand jury today indicted Mark
E. Whitacre, a former vice president of Archer Daniels Midland
Company, on charges of wire fraud, interstate transportation of
stolen property, money laundering, forfeiture, conspiracy,
obstruction of justice, and filing false income tax returns,

     The 45-count indictment was returned in U.S. District Court
in Springfield, Illinois.  Whitacre, 39, now lives in Chapel
Hill, North Carolina. 

     ADM, one of the nation's largest agribusiness producers, is
headquartered in Decatur, Illinois.

     The indictment charges Whitacre with conducting a scheme to
defraud and obtain more than $9 million from his former employer
where he served as president of its Bioproducts division and as a
vice president of the parent company until the summer of 1995.

     The indictment charges that from the spring of 1991, and
continuing through November 1995, Whitacre defrauded the money
from ADM and laundered the proceeds of his frauds through the use
of foreign and domestic companies and bank accounts, including
accounts established in the Cayman Islands, Germany, Hong Kong
and Switzerland.

     The indictment further charges that Whitacre conspired with
another, who was not named in the indictment, to defraud the
United States for the purpose of obstructing and defeating the
ascertainment and collection of income taxes by the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) and that he filed false income tax returns
with the IRS for the tax years 1991 through 1994.

     The indictment further charges Whitacre with obstructing
justice by attempting to corruptly persuade a witness to provide
misleading information to federal law enforcement officials.

     In December 1996 a Chicago federal grand jury indicted
Whitacre and two other former top ADM officials for conspiring to
fix prices and allocate sales in the lysine market worldwide. 
Lysine is used by farmers as a feed additive to ensure proper
growth of swine and poultry.  Whitacre is awaiting a trial date
in that antitrust case.

     The Fraud Section of the Criminal Division will conduct the
prosecution in U.S. District Court in the Central District of
Illinois.

     An indictment represents charges brought by a federal grand
jury and is not itself evidence.  The government has the burden
of proving the charges at trial beyond a reasonable doubt.

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97-019