The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald

Author:Kurt Eichenwald
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2009-09-23T17:28:32+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Aubrey Daniel showed no expression the next day, August 3, as he flipped a page in a black notebook, turning to a photocopy of a check. He glanced across the desk of Gary Spratling, watching as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General studied the same document in an identical binder—one Daniel had given him moments before. Spratling did not speak or show emotion. This, both men knew, was a high-stakes moment. They were wearing their best poker faces. Despite the impassive reaction, Daniel felt confident that this

$2.5 million check could doom the price-fixing investigation. It was the proof, Daniel argued, that the government’s cooperating witness, Mark Whitacre, had stolen millions from ADM—all while working with the FBI.

Every word on the document told part of the story. It was an ADM

corporate check, payable to ABP International of Lund, Sweden. It had been cashed at the Union Bank of Switzerland in Zurich. Spratling passed the notebook to Jim Griffin, who examined it before handing it to Scott Hammond, the third government lawyer at the meeting. Daniel and his colleagues had done their homework, and proceeded to reveal other documents that they said proved their case. They showed the original ABP contract and described a second contract that they said had recently been discovered. They produced affidavits from the people whose signatures appeared on the second contract—Jim Randall of ADM and Lennart Thorstensson of ABP—

both saying they had never seen the document before. And they flashed a report by a handwriting expert who concluded that the signatures on the second contract were photocopies.

“The evidence is clear,’’ Daniel said. “The contract is a fake.’’

It was Whitacre, Daniel said, who submitted the bogus contract Eich_0767903277_5p_02_r1.qxd 10/11/01 3:57 PM Page 357

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and requested a check for hand delivery to ABP. Whitacre took the check, and the check was cashed—even though ABP was not owed money and never received it. Whitacre had stolen it, Daniel said.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,’’ Daniel said. “We have information indicating Whitacre was involved in other fraudulent schemes, beginning as early as 1991.’’

Daniel stared at the government lawyers evenly.

“And the FBI agents assigned to Whitacre may have been a party to his wrongdoing,’’ he said.

What?

“What’s your evidence?’’ Griffin shot back. He was burning; he knew Shepard and Herndon. These were two straight arrows.

“Two anonymous letters were sent last month to ADM,’’ Daniel said.

He described the letters postmarked from Knoxville, Tennessee, that had been delivered to Dwayne Andreas and Jim Randall two weeks before. Both letters contained the same claim—that Whitacre had received $2.35 million at a Cayman Islands bank, paid in 1991 by rogue FBI agents in exchange for his cooperation.

This sounded thin. Not only that, but the date was wrong. Shepard hadn’t even met Whitacre until late 1992.

The prosecutors pressed for details about other schemes, but the defense lawyers refused. At this point, information was power; they were not about to give it away.

As they asked their questions, the antitrust attorneys could not shake gnawing suspicions.

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