Adm Will Plead Guilty To Price-Fixing Charges Fine Of $100 Million Will Be Largest Ever In Criminal Antitrust Case

Archer Daniels Midland Co., whose products go into everything from shampoo to soft drinks, said Monday it will plead guilty to two charges and pay $100 million to settle a federal price-fixing case.

The fines are the largest ever for a criminal antitrust case, but shouldn’t harm the bottom line of the $6 billion company, analysts said.

The agreement announced by ADM, which calls itself “supermarket to the world,” is a significant step to end a scandal that has rocked the agricultural products industry worldwide.

However, several clouds still hang over the giant grain- and soybean-processing conglomerate, including the fate of two executives targeted in the investigation and scores of civil lawsuits.

In addition, fireworks are expected from disgruntled shareholders coming to Decatur for the company’s annual meeting Thursday.

ADM said it agreed to plead guilty to charges of “anticompetitive conduct” in markets for two corn-derived products: citric acid, used in soft drinks and detergents, and lysine, a feed additive used to make hogs and chickens bigger and leaner.

The company agreed to pay fines of $70 million in the lysine case and $30 million in the citric acid case, although a judge still must decide whether to accept the proposed settlement, ADM’s statement said.

ADM said the agreement “brings to a close all Department of Justice investigations of alleged misconduct by ADM,” including a similar probe involving the high-fructose corn syrup used to sweeten soft drinks and other foods.

ADM’s statement did not mention executives Terrence Wilson and Michael Andreas, who had been told they could be indicted in the price-fixing cases. Lawyers for both men did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Scott Lassar, the federal prosecutor in Chicago heading the lysine case, said he could not comment until after a Justice Department news conference Tuesday in Washington. A court hearing in the case also was scheduled Tuesday in Chicago, Lassar said.

ADM attorney Roy Erickson did not return a telephone message, and a reporter seeking to interview him was turned away at the company’s Decatur headquarters.

ADM stock was up $1.25 cents at $21.87-1/2 per share late Monday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange.

Paying $100 million would not hurt ADM, which has as much as $2 billion in cash reserves, said analyst Richard Elam of Everen Securities Inc.

“Shareholders have been reassured now that the size of fines and the nature of the penalty isn’t going to overwhelm the company,” Elam said.

The investigation became public in June 1995, when FBI agents raided ADM’s headquarters and company officials learned that Mark Whitacre, then head of ADM’s BioProducts division, had been working undercover for the FBI.

Whitacre has said he secretly recorded meetings at which Wilson and Andreas fixed prices for lysine with ADM’s competitors.

ADM fired Whitacre after the probe became public knowledge.