Mark Whitacre

Early life and education Whitacre holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Ohio State University, and earned a PhD in nutritional biochemistry from Cornell University (1983).

Per Whitacre’s official website, while he was in prison from 1998 to 2006, he received more graduate degrees via correspondence. For example, he received a Juris Doctor and a Master of Laws from an online State Bar of California accredited Northwestern California University School of Law. In addition, Whitacre also received in prison via correspondence another Juris Doctor, a Master of Business Administration, a PhD in psychology, and a PhD in economics from Kensington University, an unaccredited distance education institution closed in 2003.

Career Whitacre was a PhD scientist at Ralston Purina after he graduated from Cornell University in early 1983. He then was Vice President at Evonik from 1984 to 1989 prior to joining ADM. In late 1989, Whitacre became the President of the BioProducts Division at ADM. In 1992, he was promoted to Corporate Vice President of ADM, as well as being President of the BioProducts Division. On August 9, 1995, Whitacre was terminated for conducting a $9.5 million fraud after ADM learned that he was an FBI informant for three years. Whitacre wore a wire for the FBI assisting in one of the largest price fixing cases in U.S. history, against ADM.

Legal issues

ADM price-fixing

In 1992, during an ADM-initiated investigation of corporate espionage and sabotage, Whitacre informed an FBI agent that he and other ADM executives were involved in an illegal multinational lysine price-fixing scheme. Whitacre's wife pressured him into becoming a whistleblower after she threatened to go to the FBI herself.

Over the next three years, Whitacre worked with FBI agents to collect information and record conversations with both ADM executives and its competitors.

Whitacre embezzlement A few years into the price-fixing investigation, Whitacre confessed to his FBI handlers that he had been involved with corporate kickbacks and money laundering at ADM.

Sentencing and release Whitacre pled guilty to tax evasion and fraud and was sent to prison on March 4, 1998. In December 2006, he was released on good behavior after serving eight and a half years.

Differing perspectives

Kurt Eichenwald

In his 2000 book, The Informant, Kurt Eichenwald, a former The New York Times reporter, portrays Whitacre as a complex figure: while working for the FBI as one of the best and most effective undercover cooperating witnesses the U.S. government ever had, Whitacre was simultaneously committing a $9 million white-collar crime. According to Eichenwald, preceding the investigation Whitacre was scammed by a group in Nigeria in an advance fee fraud, and suggests that Whitacre's losses in the scam may have been the initial reason behind his embezzlement activity at ADM.

Eichenwald writes that Whitacre lied and became delusional in a failed attempt to save himself, making the FBI investigation much more difficult. The Informant details Whitacre's bizarre behavior, including Whitacre cracking under pressure, increasing his mania, telling the media that FBI agents tried to force him to destroy tapes (a story that Whitacre later recanted), and attempting suicide. Two doctors later diagnosed Whitacre as suffering from bipolar disorder. Eichenwald concludes that Whitacre's sentence was unjust because of his mental instability at the time.

Eichenwald, two prosecutors, an FBI agent, and Mark Whitacre (during his incarceration) were featured on a September 15, 2000, episode of the radio program This American Life about the ADM case. Eichenwald referred to Whitacre's sentence as "excessive and a law enforcement failure" because Whitacre never received credit for his substantial cooperation in assisting the government with the massive price-fixing case.

Lieber also poses this question: "Where will the government obtain the next Mark Whitacre after potential whistleblowers observe how Whitacre was treated?"

Clemency and pardon support Appeals for Whitacre's full pardon or clemency to the White House were supported by several current and former justice department officials: Dean Paisley, a retired 25-year veteran and former FBI supervisor on the price-fixing case; two other FBI agents involved with the case; a former Attorney General of the United States; one of the former Asst. U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted Whitacre; two prosecutors from the Canadian Department of Justice; several Senators and Congressmen; Cornell University and Ohio State University professors; Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew; Chuck Colson; and numerous top executives of corporations.

In 2008, more than ten years after the original conviction, Paisley and two other FBI agents went public with praise for Whitacre. Paisley concluded that "Whitacre's fraud case was minuscule as compared to the ADM case Whitacre cooperated with." "Had it not been for the fraud conviction," Paisley said, "he would be a national hero. Well, he is a national hero." On August 4, 2010, in a Discovery Channel documentary, Undercover: Operation Harvest King, several FBI agents stated that "Whitacre got a raw deal." In addition, official letters from the FBI in support of a Whitacre pardon were published in Floyd Perry's September 2009 book, Mark Whitacre: Against All Odds.

Discovery Channel TV documentary A Discovery Channel TV documentary titled Undercover: Operation Harvest King, which documents Mark Whitacre's role in the ADM price fixing case, aired several times during 2009 and 2010. Discovery Channel interviewed the three FBI agents who handled the Mark Whitacre/ADM case (i.e., Dean Paisley, Brian Shepard and Robert Herndon), along with Mark and Ginger Whitacre.

Personal life Whitacre married his high school sweetheart, Ginger Gilbert, on June 16, 1979. Together they have three children. Forbes reported that Whitacre was guest speaker at the Quantico FBI Academy during 2011 about second chances,