To hear Andrew Young tell it, Archer Daniels Midland Co. never intended to violate the law as it conducted global business dealings that resulted in its guilty pleas on price-fixing charges.
“This was not a company driven by greed,” said Young, a former ambassador to the United Nations who became an ADM director in 1997.
ADM agreed to plead guilty to criminal antitrust charges largely to avoid a costly fight with the government, he said.
“Part of the rationale was looking at IBM. While they were fighting the government, they lost their business,” said Young. “The board made a decision that this isn’t worth fighting about.”
Indeed, ADM pleaded guilty in 1996 to price-fixing in the citric-acid and lysine markets. It paid a then-record $100 million criminal fine, and almost another $100 million to settle related civil lawsuits.
Three of its top executives were convicted of criminal price-fixing charges last year.
The remarks were reminiscent of those made more than three years ago by ADM director F. Ross Johnson, who ridiculed FBI investigators as “scumbags” with “almost a criminal mentality” during a speech at Emory University. A spokesman for Johnson said at the time the remarks were taken out of context.
A Justice Department attorney declined to comment Monday.
