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. ### 97-019