The True Story Behind ‘The Informant,’ Explained

The best stories on screen are the ones inspired by real life, and ‘The Informant’ is one of them. ‘The Informant’ was a movie released in 2009 about a massive corporate conspiracy dubbed as a lysine price-fixing conspiracy. The movie was actually based on a book written by Kurt Eichenwald, who documented the case, and the central figure in the conspiracy, Mark Whitacre, played by Matt Damon in the movie. If you’re interested in the true story behind ‘The Informant, ‘ we decided to summarize it for you and offer our humble opinion on it. 

Who were the major players in the lysine price-fixing conspiracy? 

In the mid-1990s, the corporate world was shaken to its core with the so-called Lysine Price Fixing conspiracy. Lysine is commonly used for the production of animal feed, and it’s one of the most lucrative markets that you can take part in if you’re dealing with the agriculture industry. 

American conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) colluded with Japanese companies Ajinomoto and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo and Korean companies Sewon America Inc. and Cheil Jedang Ltd. to fix the market prices of lysine increasing the values of their own stocks. Mark Whitacre, at that time, served as Divisional President of ADM’s BioProducts Division, and initially, even though he was aware of the conspiracy taking place, he was reluctant to report the crime to the FBI until he was pressured by his wife, who threatened to go to the authorities herself. 

Whitacre was useful to the FBI and served as an informant collecting evidence and listening in on the meetings for three whole years, BUT, somewhere along the way, Whitacre came clean about the fact that he embezzled over 9 million dollars of the company’s funds and part of it was actually embezzled while he was serving as the informant for FBI. 

What happened to Whitacre and ADM? 

Well, the FBI’s bust of ADM, their “business partners/rivals,” resulted in a record antitrust penalty at the time. ADM was fined $70 million for the lysine conspiracy and an additional $30 million for a separate citric acid market conspiracy, totaling $100 million. Three former executives were convicted in 1998. Buyers sued, recovering $80 to $100 million in damages, and ADM paid $38 million to settle shareholder suits. This case marked the first successful prosecution of an international cartel by the U.S. Department of Justice in over 40 years, leading to additional actions against nearly 20 international cartels.

The case was really only the top of the iceberg. Whitacre himself was also sentenced to nine years in prison despite his massive role in uncovering the conspiracy. He was sentenced for embezzlement to nine years but was eventually released after serving only eight and a half years. 

If you think this was a bizarre and complicated case to handle, it only gets weirder. 

How much of ‘The Informant’ is true? 

Basically, the most detailed accounts of the whole conspiracy are books written on the matter, and one of them was the book written by Kurt Eichenwald. Eichenwald showed Whitacre in a completely different light, something that the public was at that time in large part unaware of. 

In the book, Eichenwald details how Whitacre almost lost his mind during the trial and investigation, and he spiraled out of control until he was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder. During the investigation, ADM actually had an overwhelming amount of evidence that Whitacre was the main player in the entire conspiracy, which, paired with his charges of embezzlement, didn’t look so well. 

Following the rising pressure and faced with almost certain lengthy prison sentences, Whitacre started to crack. He started pathologically lying and displayed highly irrational and delusional behavior. He stopped sleeping, became manic, and started giving bizarre statements to the media that portrayed the FBI as a co-conspirator in the case. 

The case eventually made it to trial, and Whitacre was in a lot of trouble. His attorney at the time, Epstein, managed to reduce his sentence and tried to prove that, basically, the government was at fault for Whitacre’s irrational behavior; he was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 

Whitacre, in a shocking turn of events, fired Epstein because he refused to serve any time whatsoever. That wasn’t a good move and had catastrophic consequences. Whitacre was eventually sentenced to 9 years in prison, getting 3x longer sentence than the rest of the names involved in the conspiracy. 

Eichenwald presented Whitacre in the book like he was lying about his mental troubles and painting him as someone who used his manic episodes to evade prison time despite his bipolar diagnosis. Eichenwald eventually agreed that Whitacre’s sentence was excessive and that he didn’t deserve to serve so much time after basically solving the case for the FBI, no matter how much of a liability he eventually turned out to be. 

Matt Damon’s portrayal in the movie was praised, and the movie’s comedic approach toward the whole situation. 

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