133 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
133 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 9 Num. 56
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======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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"The customer is our enemy." -- Michael Andreas of ADM
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ANDREAS, ADM SLAPPED DOWN IN SCHEME
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By Warren Hough
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(The Spotlight, Nov. 4, 1996)
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[See the new Spotlight web site at http://www.spotlight.org]
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In November 1992 FBI agent Brian Shepard, checking on reports of
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industrial sabotage, planted hidden microphones in the executive
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offices of the Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), a leading
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agribusiness conglomerate.
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"What we were tracking was a mole," says Shepard.
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What they found was a viper's nest of fraudulent schemes,
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price-fixing and consumer fraud incriminating many of the world's
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largest food supply firms.
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On October 15, four years after the investigation began, ADM
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pleaded guilty to federal charges of criminal price manipulation
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and agreed to pay a whopping $100 million fine.
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But ADM's surrender is merely "the first thread in a worldwide
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web of multinational corporations that pay lip service to 'free
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trade' while they join forces against the consumers in cartels
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and price-rigging conspiracies," says Otto Welker, a former New
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York State prosecutor.
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Following ADM's guilty plea, the Justice Department has now
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launched criminal investigations of 21 major agribusiness and
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food-supply firms, including such industry leaders as the giant
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Cargill Corporation and Hoffman-Laroche, a leading Swiss
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biochemical manufacturer.
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As this issue of The Spotlight went to press, its investigative
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reporters have assembled the following facts about the ongoing
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probe:
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In the summer of 1992, Dr. Mark Whitacre, a specialist in
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nutritional science who headed ADM's biochemistry division, found
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himself caught in a gnawing dilemma.
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On the one hand, Whitacre had become uneasily involved in a
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criminal conspiracy: A secret deal between ADM and its main
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competitors to fix the price of his biochemistry division's main
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product, lysine, an amino acid extracted from corn and used
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worldwide as an essential additive to pork and poultry feed.
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On the other, Whitacre was ordered to deal with a team of FBI
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agents called in by ADM Chairman Dwayne Andreas to find out
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whether saboteurs hired by rival Japanese firms were slipping
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contaminants into ADM's production machinery.
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Tormented by doubts about his complicity in a criminal
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conspiracy, Whitacre began to change the account of events he
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gave federal investigators.
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"I told [FBI agent] Shepard I had lied about some things... It
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was a real relief to talk to someone without lying all the time,"
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Whitacre related in a court deposition reviewed by The Spotlight.
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Shepard soon persuaded Whitacre to "wear a wire" -- that is, to
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carry a concealed audio transmitter into the meetings of ADM's
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top executives.
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-+- Let Them Eat Cake -+-
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The results were stunning. Andreas, one of the most powerful
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U.S. corporate chieftains, along with his son and heir-apparent,
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Vice Chairman Michael Andreas, are heard telling their top aides
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to forget all the "hogwash" about free trade, global
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competitiveness and "feeding the world" propagandized by ADM's
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paid TV commentators such as celebrated talk show host John
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McLaughlin. {1}
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"Our philosophy is just the opposite. In reality, it is our
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competitors who are our friends and the customer is our enemy,"
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Michael Andreas, unaware that he is being recorded, reminds his
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colleagues time and again.
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In line with this corporate philosophy, ADM soon made a secret
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pact with its two main competitors in the lysine business -- the
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Japanese agribusiness giants Kiowa Hakko and Ajinomoto -- to
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create a criminal cartel, fixing market shares and artificially
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high worldwide prices for this vital biochemical commodity.
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"In a way, it was stealing from the world's poor -- the uncounted
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millions of customers Andreas had designated the 'enemy' -- in
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order to enrich the fat multinational corporations that supply
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our overpriced food," says consumer advocate Nora de Apponyi, a
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well-known nutrition specialist.
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---------------------------<< Notes >>---------------------------
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{1} "...propagandized by ADM's paid TV commentators." Also, ADM
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(at least locally, where I live) helps support the PBS News Hour
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with Jim Lehrer. A brief ADM promo always starts the PBS
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newscast here. Strange, but I haven't seen a whole lot of
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coverage of this ADM scandal on PBS.
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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