ADM, USDA & U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: NEW EVIDENCE BEING SUBMITTED TO JUDGE CHARGING OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE AND COVERUP
New evidence, including documents and audiotape that implicates the influence-peddling Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly, the U.S. Department of Justice's Joel Klein and a select Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) committee, in obstruction of justice and a coverup involving the 1996 plea agreement by the "Supermarkup to the World" regarding its role in world-wide price fixing in the feed additive market is slated to be presented by request to United States District Court Judge Ruben Castillo this week in Chicago.
It was in 1996 in Judge Castillo's court that ADM pled guilty to price fixing in the world lysine feed additive market and paid $100 million fine and later in 1999 had three of its executives convicted of price fixing, fined and sent to jail.
The new evidence being present to the court had its genesis and relates to comments made at an April 18, 1999 town meeting on "Concentration And Monopoly In Agriculture" held in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hosting the event were Senators Paul Wellstone (Dem-Minnesota), Tom Harkin (Dem-Iowa, and Tom Daschle (Dem-South Dakota). Special guests included Klein, Assistant U.S. Attorney General, Anti Trust Division, and Michael Dunn, Assistant Secretary, USDA Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Packers & Stockyards Programs. In attendance were over 800 farmers and farm groups from numerous surrounding states.
Klein was asked at the meeting if he was the person who supervised and signed off on the ADM plea agreement, and he confirmed that he was. He was also asked how the Justice Department calculated the enormity of such a fine, and he gave an explanation.
Dunn was asked why the USDA would let ADM keep its contracts worth $85 million and on the other hand fine ADM only $100 million dollars. Dunn replied that ADM wanted to keep this business, and this was part of the plea agreement. Dunn not only made it known that Klein was involved in the decision, but went into detail on how this deal was done with the Justice Department concerning ADM being allowed to keep USDA business.
Yet, the plea agreement signed October 15, 1996 makes no mention of this part of the deal.
It is an automatic three-year disbarment from government contracts when a company is convicted or pleads guilty to a criminal offense. During this same month that the Justice Department signed off on the ADM plea agreement Sun-Diamond Growers of California was automatically disbarred for three years after they were convicted of illegal gratuities to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy and illegal campaign contributions made to Espy's brother. The ban included all of Sun-Diamond's cooperatives and dozens of its top executives.
On December 17, 1996 Bloomberg News Washington Bureau reporter Roger Runningen, in an article titled "ADM's $83.5 Million in USDA at Risk in Review," quoted Clayton Yuetter, former Agriculture Secretary under Presidents Reagan and Bush and now a member of the ConAgra Corp. board of directors, "It seems to me that it would be very difficult for the USDA not to move to disqualify the company from new government business. The department would get criticism from a lot of sources if it, in essence, let ADM off the hook."
Bob Bergland, Secretary of Agriculture under President Carter, said in the same article, "Some people will argue, I suppose, that ADM is too big to kick out, but when it comes to criminal charges, there's no deals to be made." All the time the deal between the Justice Department and the USDA was already agreed upon.
Again on January 17, 1997 Runningen reported that "ADM Keeps USDA Business, Avoids Ban in Agreement". The article noted that "Under the five-point agreement ADM must establish a corporate code of conduct, develop antitrust guidelines, distribute guidelines to sales employees, certify that ethics guidelines will be obeyed, and conduct ethics and antitrust training seminars annually."
Grant Buntrock, head of the USDA's Farm Service Agency stated that the USDA is "implementing this agreement to fully protect the public interest." Gary Spratling, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the criminal enforcement section of the anti-trust division stated at a press conference in Washington DC on October 15, 1996 that "It's not for the Department of Justice to comment on the governance matters of ADM."
Critics of the entire DofJ and USDA "arrangement" point out that although the Department of Justice felt it was inappropriate for it to comment, they certainly did not feel their involvement with the USDA in corporate governance matters at ADM was appropriate when they reached the aforementioned agreement.
On October 15, 1996 Steven R. Mills, comptroller at ADM stood before Judge Castillo under oath and made numerous "misquotes," according to people familiar with the plea agreement. Standing with Mills was Aubrey M. Daniel III of Williams & Connolly who represented ADM in negotiations with the Justice Department and knew that the plea agreement did not reveal the truth of the agreement between the DofJ and USDA.
Williams & Connolly also represented President Bill Clinton at his impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate and is now representing FOX Television in its legal battle with Florida reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson after they were fired for refusing to lie, distort and slant an on-the-air report on the use and dangers of rBGH.
In presenting this requested new evidence of the details in the plea agreement to Judge Castillo, ADM Shareholders Watch Committee's David Hoech notes that in August of 1996 "a prominent lawyer from Washington D.C. told me that this case involves a bigger coverup than Watergate. This coverup involves the Department of Justice, FBI, USDA, CIA, FDA, EPA and the accounting firm of Ernst & Young.
"This same person also told me that the only way the truth will ever have a chance of coming out is if a federal judge will stand up against the Justice Department's coverup."
Hoech also points out that in August this year Kurt Eichenwald, a writer for the New York Times "asked me for a copy of a letter I received from Anne K. Bingaman who in 1996 was the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the anti-trust division. The letter appeared to be from Bingaman but was signed by Joel Klein.
"When Joel Klein declined to be interviewed by James B. Lieber the author of `Rats In The Grain,' he stated, 'I really didn't have very much to do with it.' Klein did the deal, and Eichenwald knows this is true, but never even mentioned Klein in his book 'The Informant.' One attorney involved in the ADM case said, 'We understood that Eichenwald was working for Williams & Connolly.'":
