ADM Probe Goes On Despite Settlement

A federal judge in Chicago on Tuesday accepted Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.’s price-fixing guilty plea and ordered it to pay $100 million in fines, but the action did not put an end to the scandal at the farm products giant.

Shortly before U.S. District Judge Reuben Castillo accepted ADM’s guilty plea to two counts of price fixing, Justice Department officials in Washington said they were continuing their investigation of two company executives.

“This is not a good day for corporate America,” Castillo said in accepting the company’s pleas and confirming separate fines of $70 million and $30 million--by far the largest ever in a price-fixing case.

The judge said he recognized that some parties might criticize the fines as being too low, but he said he believes they will serve as a deterrent to any company that is tempted to fix prices.

“No American company is above the law,” Castillo said.

Under the plea agreement Castillo accepted, ADM will pay a $70-million fine for fixing prices of lysine, a feed additive, and $30 million for fixing prices on citric acid, an additive used in food, beverages and other products.

Earlier in Washington, Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Gary Spratling said the government is still gathering evidence in the case involving two ADM executives, Vice Chairman Michael Andreas and Terrance Wilson, a vice president in charge of ADM’s corn-processing division.

U.S. Atty. James Burns of the Northern District of Illinois said that under the agreement, ADM executives are required to cooperate with the Justice Department in its investigation. “You should stay tuned,” Burns said. “There will be more to come.”

Meanwhile, the company said its profit plunged in the latest quarter after it took a $174.4-million charge related to the fines and other litigation settlements arising from the lysine and citric acid cases.

ADM said its net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 fell to $3.6 million, or 1 cent a share, from $163.1 million, or 29 cents.

The company’s stock fell 12.5 cents to close at $21.625 on the New York Stock Exchange.