FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1997 (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888 FORMER ADM OFFICIAL IN MEXICO PLEADS GUILTY WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced that Reinhard Richter, former president of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Mexico, entered pleas of guilty today to charges of conspiracy involving schemes to defraud ADM and to assisting former ADM BioProducts Division president Mark E. Whitacre in defrauding the Internal Revenue Service. The guilty pleas were entered before U.S. District Judge Harold Baker in federal court in Urbana, Illinois. Richter, 46, now residing in Mexico, was president of ADM Mexico from 1991 to 1995. He admitted conspiring with Whitacre to submit fictitious invoices to ADM and to facilitating the transfer of almost $226,000 to Whitacre through Richter's Texas bank account. He also assisted Whitacre's filing of false income tax returns through the use of the Texas bank account, according to court papers. Whitacre, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, also pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Urbana on October 10 to charges of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the IRS, filing false income tax returns, and interstate transportation of stolen property. The prosecution was conducted by the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice with the trial team of Nancy J. Jardini, Donald B. Mackay and James J. Nixon. The case was investigated by Special Agent Anthony P. D'Angelo of the Chicago Office of the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigative Agents Michael Bandy and Sue Roderick of its Springfield, Illinois, Office. Sentencing has been scheduled for January 30, 1998. ### 97-447