The Informant! evaluation action
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Mark Whitacre: What if I just put out some hypotheticals. I'll talk about certain financial situations, and you guys can tell me if they're wrong, or how serious they might be. Okay, for instance, what if a company gave an executive a car, you know, a corporate car, and instead of driving that to work, he used his personal car, and gave his company car to his daughter. That be a problem?
FBI Special Agent Bob Herndon: That's it? That's hypothetical?
Brian Shepard: That shouldn't be a problem.
Mark Whitacre: Okay, what if it was a corporate plane, and the executive was using that for personal use.
FBI Special Agent Bob Herndon: Basically the same thing.
Brian Shepard: Maybe some IRS issues, but...
Mark Whitacre: Okay, what if it was standard practice at ADM for executives to regularly accept kickbacks in cash.
Brian Shepard: [stunned] How much money are we talking about, Mark?
Mark Whitacre: Well, Brian, hypothetically, $500,000.
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Mark Whitacre: One of the Japanese guys told me a story. This lysine salesman is in a meeting with someone from ConAgra or some other company, I don't know. And the client leans forward and says "I have the same tie as you, only the pattern is reversed." And then he drops dead, face down on the table. Alive and then dead. Brain aneurism. Maybe everyone has a sentence like that, a little time bomb. "I have the same tie as you, only the pattern's reversed." Dead. The last thing they'll ever say.