In June 1995, a whistleblower informed federal agents of the scheme of a giant multinational conglomerate, Archer-Daniels-Midland, to control sales of a widely demanded food additive and thus keep prices high worldwide. For three years, he had been secretly recording meetings of the firm’s senior executives with Asian and European competitors. The whistleblower, Mark E. Whitacre, was revealed to ADM by an attorney who was supposedly conferring with him as a possible client.