James B. Lieber
Rats in the Grain
The Dirty Tricks and Trials of Archer Daniels Midland
The "Supermarket to the World"

"Lieber deserves praise for his persistence in illuminating a massive case of white-collar crime." — Cleveland Plain Dealer

As two of those jailed for price fixing in the massive ADM trial are released after a mere hand-slapping of prison time, James B. Lieber's new afterword brings us up-to-date on the goings-on at Archer Daniels Midland. Is ADM walking the straight and narrow? Or are they up to their same old tricks?

Agribusiness titans stealing money from their own customers. High-level executives with ties to international businesses. Governments joking about the client as the enemy, as they globally fix prices and violate both the spirit and the letter of antitrust laws. This was a day in the life of Archer Daniels Midland, and James B. Lieber's unblinking examination of the facts is beyond comparison in terms of thoroughness.

ADM had a past full of scandal and conspiracy charges, but it enjoyed the protection of powerful politicians from both parties thanks to the chairman, Dwayne Andreas. From unscrupulous Cold War grain deals to Watergate payoff money, nothing seemed to stick to the Midwestern power broker. But in the summer of 1995 ADM's luck changed. After an intense undercover operation, the FBI pounced. Hours of tapes had been made by mole Mark Whitacre of principals colluding with their competitors. The surveillance tapes were damning. In language more suited to a sophisticated crime syndicate than a Fortune 50 company and its top executives, the conspirators divided world markets, inflated prices, and carefully planned the cover-up.

After countless delays, the federal case came to trial in Chicago in the summer of 1998. Rats in the Grain profiles the witnesses and their testimony, the ADM lawyers and the federal prosecutors, the inner workings of the Departments of Justice and Antitrust, the judge, and the unpredictable mole. Lieber deftly threads through the legalese and arcane court procedure, the cross-examinations and the redirects, the negotiations and the surprises, to reveal the dark practices of ADM and its refusal to accept responsibility. Rats in the Grain is an informed and accessible parsing of a complex legal case. Lieber brings to light a disturbing portrait of fraud, conspiracy, and corruption in America's heartland.

James B. Lieber is the author of Friendly Takeover: How an Employee Buyout Saved a Steel Town. A graduate of Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, he has written articles on social and political issues for The Atlantic, The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, and Mother Jones. He lives and practices law in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.