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It was one of the FBI's biggest secrets: Mark Whitacre, a senior executive at Archer Daniels Midland—America's most politically powerful corporation—became a confidential government witness. Putting his career and family at risk, Whitacre, along with a small team of agents, tapped into secrets at ADM that led the FBI to discover the company's scheme to steal millions of dollars from its own customers.
But as the FBI and federal prosecutors closed in on ADM, they suddenly found that everything was not all that it appeared. While Whitacre was cooperating with the Feds and playing the role of loyal company man, he also had his own agenda. Whitacre became sucked into his own world of James Bond antics, imperiling the criminal case and creating a web of deceit that left the FBI and prosecutors uncertain where the lies stopped and the truth began.
Meticulously researched and richly told, The Informant re-creates the drama of the story, beginning with the secret recordings, stakeouts, and interviews with suspects and witnesses to the power struggles within ADM and its board—including the high-profile chairman Dwayne Andreas, F. Ross Johnson, and Brian Mulroney—to the big-gun Washington lawyers hired by ADM, and on up through the ranks of the Justice Department to FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno.
A page-turning real-life thriller that features deadpan FBI agents, crooked executives, idealistic lawyers, and shady witnesses with an addiction to intrigue, The Informant tells an important and compelling story of power and betrayal in America
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
December 27, 2005 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781415952498
- File size: 694419 KB
- Duration: 24:06:42
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Mark Whitacre promised to be the best informant the FBI had ever had. The senior executive at the Archer Daniels Midland Corporation offered access into the upper levels of ADM's international price-fixing crimes, until he proved unstable and duplicitous to the agency as well as to his own employer. Arthur Morey presents this true-crime drama like the fictional crime thriller it easily could be. His no-nonsense approach provides credibility, while his enhancement of each character's vocal nuances brings the story to life. Morey's interpretation of Eichenwald's exhaustive research enhances the story's many plot twists, leaving listeners checking the package to make sure it is really nonfiction. R.L.L. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine -
It's hard to believe that corporate America can behave with such wanton indifference to the law. Such is the case with this nonfiction account of the Archer Daniels Midland price-fixing scandal of the mid-1990s. Narrator George Wilson leads us through the byzantine world of corporate malfeasance as if reading from a John Grisham novel (a not altogether outrageous comparison). Wilson uses a straightforward approach to the material, which makes it even more shocking, given how the events unfold. While he uses subdued accents to differentiate the major players, his real strength is in his pacing and emphasis. He pauses at just the right moments for maximum effect and makes price fixing and embezzlement fascinating, heart-pounding action. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
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When the U.S. government accused powerful agri-business giant Archer Daniels Midland of price-fixing, they thought they had the ultimate star witness--a vice president turned informant who had taped nefarious meetings with competitors. They ended up with a horrible liability instead; their informant turned out to be a psychotic liar who stole millions from his employer. Michael McConnohie dramatizes this true-crime story masterfully. White-collar crime might not sound too interesting, but Eichenwald's punchy prose and McConnohie's masterful reading keeps a listener's attention to the end, when author confronts in-formant in a dynamic denouement. T.F. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine
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