Gene, if you are really interested in the film, I might be able to find Hoech's
number among my papers.
Eugene Coyle wrote:
> ADM got prosecuted not because the justice Dept was on the job but
> because the head of one of the ADM divisions went to the authorities and
> assisted in videotaping the conspirators, including Michael Andreas, in
> action.
Not quite. Andreas believed that a sabateur was responsible for poisonous
materials that ADM sold. He called on the FBI. The mole eventually, told them
about the price fixing. I never understood why.
> In one bit of tape, in a Honolulu hotel room as I recall, the
> hidden cameras were rolling when someone in the room unknowingly put a
> drink down in front of the lens. Soon an FBI agent, disguised as a waiter,
> entered the room to straighten up, and to give the camera a clear path.
I don't think that any of the tapes were ever released. The mole, Whitacre,
was a wierdo.
>
> When the case went public, either through convening a grand jury or
> some other way, the first thing the Justice Department did was inform ADM
> of who, within its executives, was the informant.
Not quite. Williams and Connely lawers offered to represent the employees.
The mole thought that his talk with his lawyer was confidential. It was not.
> Later, a Federal judge in Chicago, re a civil part of recovering
> damages, put the opportunity to represent the class action participants
> out to bid.
That was truly wierd.
> What better than the market to find the right law firm? He
> chose the low bidder and the low bidder chose to settle the case almost
> immediately, without any depositions or other investigation. An amazing
> story -- and again, someone (maybe both the judge and the winning bidder)
> should have been censured, but wasn't.
>
> The informant, meanwhile, was double-crossed in other ways by the FBI
> and Justice and ended up attempting suicide and then going into a mental
> care institution.
The 2 suicides were questionable. He was unstable, at least after he came
under pressure.
> He got prosecuted for stealing money from ADM in what
> looks to me like, rather than him stealing from the employer, rather a
> corporate money-laundering scheme to get cash for bribes or whatever.
> (ADM, you probably recall, in the person of Michael Andreas' father,
> delivered a briefcase full of cash to Nixon -- ADM seems to have kept
> untraceable cash handy.)
However, the book gives evidence that Whitacre did not steal the money -- that
sending money to Switzerland seems to have been standard practice in the
company -- to give non-taxable bonuses. A friend of a friend was instrumental
in sending the money abroad.
> The informant got a long prison sentence, much
> longer than Andreas or the other executive convicted with him, but he
> remarked to the judge at the sentencing hearing that he was much happier in
> prison than he had been at ADM.
>
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
