First published 2001
Mark Whitacre walks into FBI headquarters with explosive allegations about his employer, Archer Daniels Midland. The promising ADM executive claims the agricultural giant is stealing millions from customers through price fixing schemes spanning five continents. The FBI convinces Whitacre to become their inside man, wearing hidden recording devices to capture evidence of corporate conspiracy. For months, he plays a dangerous double game, maintaining his role as loyal company man while secretly feeding intelligence to federal agents. The Bureau builds its case through stakeouts, wiretaps, and recordings of illegal meetings worldwide. But as prosecutors prepare to take down one of America's most politically powerful corporations, they discover their star witness has been hiding his own agenda. Whitacre's fascination with espionage begins consuming him, and his web of deception grows beyond anyone's control. The FBI agents who staked their careers on this investigation find themselves questioning everything their informant told them, unable to separate truth from elaborate fiction in a case that threatens to collapse under the weight of betrayal.
Genres: 20th-century, business, crime, non-fiction, 21st-century, espionage
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Archer Daniels Midland
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
624 pages · Kindle Edition · Broadway Books