ADM Whistle-Blower Ordered to Repay Salary

A federal judge has ordered Mark Whitacre, who helped the FBI uncover price-fixing at food processor Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., to pay back $1.17 million in salary and benefits. Whitacre, a former executive, is serving a nine-year sentence for embezzling $9 million from the Decatur, Ill.-based company. Judge Michael McCuskey ruled last Thursday that because Whitacre didn’t faithfully perform his job with ADM, ADM was entitled to the salary and benefits it paid him during a four-year period. The amount is part of a $6.3-million judgment. Whitacre and two other ADM senior executives were sentenced last month in what prosecutors called one of the largest antitrust conspiracies ever brought to court. They were accused of conspiring with competitors in Japan and South Korea to fix the $600-million world market in lysine, a soybean-based feed additive that promotes growth in hogs and poultry. In 1996, the company pleaded guilty to price-fixing charges. Because Whitacre is in prison and has multimillion-dollar judgments against him, the new ruling will probably have little effect on him. But Whitacre’s attorney said it could have an adverse effect on corporate whistle-blowers in the future.