For more information on Whitacre, whose parents still live in Morrow in the home he grew up in, visit markwhitacre.com.
Twenty years ago, Mark Whitacre became the youngest divisional president at Archer Daniels Midland and soon found himself at the center of the largest price fixing case in U.S. history at the time.
Whitacre, a 1975 graduate of Little Miami High School, is the subject of two books, a documentary and the upcoming Steven Soderbergh movie, “The Informant!” which stars Matt Damon as Whitacre.
Although he cannot discuss the film until it is released in October, Whitacre, 52, said he received an advanced copy of the script and also helped supply many of the props to keep the movie consistent.
In 1992, while already embezzling money from ADM, Whitacre became an informant for the FBI regarding the company’s price fixing of common food ingredients.
But Whitacre says that without the insistence of his wife, Ginger, he may never have come clean.
“She’s really the whistle blower and the hero,” he said. “I give her full credit.”
The FBI was called in to investigate a possible case of sabotage at one of Whitacre’s plants. He knew there was nothing going on, but Whitacre said he needed to buy time with his boss to investigate why their products were being contaminated.
Whitacre confessed to his wife and told her his concerns, at which time she told him if he did not tell the FBI agents, who were on their way to his house, then she would.
“A day or two later, I was wearing a wire everyday,” he said. “It’s not easy to do that. You’re building a company during the day and tearing it apart at night.”
Whitacre said his mental state suffered from the stress he was under, putting in 100-hour work weeks and traveling often while trying to provide the FBI with the information then needed to make a case against ADM.
After two and half years, the FBI moved forward with their case and Whitacre was outed as the mole. ADM turned him in for his increasing amounts of fraud, as Whitacre says he began writing larger checks to himself to provide for his family after he was found out by ADM.
“Greed and ego got in the way. I was writing my own severance,” he said.
Whitacre spent eight and half years in prison after being convicted on fraud and tax evasion charges.
Aside from the movie, which the Whitacres have seen thanks to an advanced screening provided by Warner Bros., Whitacre said, “The real story is coming out of this on the other end.”
The day after he left prison, Whitacre got a job with Cypress Systems Inc., a biotechnology firm, where he was recently promoted to president of operations. He said his family, who now live in Florida, grew stronger while he was in prison, with Ginger visiting him every weekend, often bringing their three children.
“You can either choose to get better or get bitter. We made a choice to get better,” he said.
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