This is the first of two installments about Dr. Mark Whitacre and his experience as a whistleblower for the FBI. For Part II, read the Dec. 7 article, Involvement in FBI, film, set Whitacre’s platform.

Update: Whitacre has provided a link to the video he intended to show in chapel, Dec. 6, which did not work due to audio malfunctions. The video can be found here.

Few people can hide $9 million, go undercover as an informant for the FBI, look at their time in prison as a positive experience or say that Matt Damon has portrayed them in a movie. For Dr. Mark Whitacre, these hardly touch the surface of the life-changing experiences he has encountered since the start of his career.

Whitacre, whose experience with price-fixing and working with the FBI have been made into a film, The Informant!, visited the FC campus to share his testimony in chapel, Dec. 6.

“What I?m really hoping for the audience today is a couple different things,” Whitacre said. “One, that the future leaders are in this room, and for them to look at it [his story] and reflect more, not make impulse decisions; to become better leaders than what my generation has done and not make the same mistakes.”

Price-fixing, undercover work set up transformation

While he was the president of the BioProducts Division at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Whitacre alerted the FBI of illegal price-fixing within the company, which turned out to be one of the largest cases of price-fixing in US history. He then became an informant for the FBI, wearing wires to record conversations every day for three years, beginning in 1992.

When the FBI investigated Whitacre’s activity, he was found to be guilty of fraud, hiding $9.5 million, and spent eight and a half years in federal prison as punishment. Three months into his sentence, Whitacre gained a strong Christian faith, which led to several blessings during the time.

Having worked closely with the FBI for a long period of time, Whitacre was initially offered a mere six months as his sentence. However, he was unable to accept his felony nor the offer at the time. Although he ended up in prison for nine years, Whitacre found himself more content than when he was making $3 million a year at ADM.

“I was happier at $20 a month helping people learn how to read, write — I helped hundreds of people get their GEDs, degrees and so on in prison — and I was happier than I ever was, doing that, than making $3 million a year at the 56th largest company in America,” Whitacre said. “And it took me going to prison to realize that, and I?m not sure I could have wrapped all of that into six months. I?m not sure I needed nine years, but I think God knew he needed me more than six months in prison to accomplish what I needed a chance to accomplish.”

Faith sustains Whitacre through prison

Despite the intense stress of the situation, Whitacre and his family purely consider the experience to be a positive one, and do not regret their circumstances. Rather, they appreciate the doors that have been opened through the events.

“A lot of people say, ?Gosh Mark, you spent years undercover, you were meeting with FBI until midnight for three years, you had nine years in prison, that?s 12 years lost of life,?” Whitacre said. “… We don?t look at it as loss, we look at it as a net gain: that we really gained from it. We really learned, and really had a chance to better things that would have never existed — things like today that never would have been an opportunity if this had not happened.”

Whitacre recognized the severity of his actions, and faced a number of fears and worries. This troubled him so much that he was on the brink of ending his own life.

“I attempted suicide twice before I went to prison because the burdens were so great, I didn?t think I could handle nine years of prison,” Whitacre said. “How would my family survive? Would I even have a family? With a divorce rate of 99 percent, would they even be there when I got out? Would I be employable?”

Due to his new faith, Whitacre found the ability to liberate himself from a habit of relying only on himself.

“Those burdens weighed heavily on me, but God took care of all those things,” Whitacre said. “I really started having a personal relationship with him for the first time in my life at age 41. I prayed and relied on Christ, and he took my life from a train wreck to a very productive citizen in our society because I relied on him instead of relying on myself.”

Whitacre came across astounding acts of generosity when victims, from whom Whitacre and some fellow executives had cheated, came alongside his family, and provided resources.

“The companies that we were stealing from with this big price-fixing I was taping for the FBI, those very companies — the victims of the crime — contacted my wife and put my wife through college to become a teacher,” Whitacre said. “She was teacher of the year a couple years ago. They put my kids through college, they helped pay their financial fees until I got out.”

Observing the answers to his prayers, Whitacre and his family retain positive attitudes.

“We really look at it and got better and not bitter — and with Christ in our life, that?s why we got better and not bitter — and the only difference between those two words is the letter ?i,?” Whitacre said. “We looked within ourselves to look better, so we look at it as a very positive experience even though it was negatively looked at during that very period of time.”

For Part II, read the Dec. 7 article, Involvement in FBI, film, set Whitacre’s platform.

For more features, read the Dec. 2 article, Old Fresno Water Tower among city’s distinguished landmarks.