science

The Informant (book)

The Informant (book) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Informant (book) rather than just read about it. In short: The Informant: A True Story is a nonfiction white-collar crime book written by journalist Kurt Eichenwald and published in 2000 by Random House. It documents the mid-1990s lysine price-fixing conspiracy case and the involvement of Archer Daniels Midland executive Mark Whitacre, inspiring a 2009 film adaptation starring Matt Damon as Whitacre.

Key takeaways

The Informant (book) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Informant (book) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Informant (book) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Informant: A True Story is a nonfiction white-collar crime book written by journalist Kurt Eichenwald and published in 2000 by Random House. It documents the mid-1990s lysine price-fixing conspiracy case and the involvement of Archer Daniels Midland executive Mark Whitacre, inspiring a 2009 film adaptation starring Matt Damon as Whitacre.

Summary

In the early 1990s, at the agri-business conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Mark Whitacre is a corporate vice president and head of the bio-products division. In November 1992, under pressure from his wife, Whitacre confesses to an FBI agent that he, along with other ADM executives, routinely met with competitors to fix the price of lysine, a food additive. Afterwards, Whitacre assists in gathering evidence against the other conspirators by secretly taping their activities during overseas business meetings. Over the course of three years, the FBI collects hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes documenting the largest case of price-fixing in history. Whitacre is revealed to have defrauded $9 million from ADM at the same time he was aiding the FBI. After federal agents stage a raid on ADM, the company hits back with damning evidence against the government's star witness. Whitacre becomes delusional and engages in pathological lying to save himself, leading the FBI to learn that he has bipolar disorder. Worst of all, he gives false stories to the media about being forced to destroy evidence by the FBI. Whitacre becomes extremely manic, stops sleeping, and exhibits bizarre behavior as his meltdown continues. He attempts suicide a few months later, but is saved by his groundskeeper. After seeing the movie The Firm, Whitacre's delusional fantasy causes him to record and collect his conversations with FBI agents. Because he violated his immunity agreement with the government, Whitacre is charged with price-fixing along with the other ADM conspirators. Whitacre's attorney, James Epstein, successfully convinces the Justice Department officials that the government was culpable for Whitacre's behavior as he was emotionally unprepared for the case. Epstein manages to get a very light sentence for Whitacre. However, Whitacre, unwilling to serve any jail time, fires Epstein. At his trial, Whitacre is convicted and receives a federal prison sentence three times longer than the other conspirators. Whitacre's FBI handlers, along with Attorney General John Ashcroft, attempt to obtain a presidential pardon for Whitacre. With remarkable support from the FBI and his wife, Whitacre recovers from his mental problems and, after leaving prison, is promoted to COO and president of a California biotechnology company. The guilty parties in the price-fixing conspiracy, including ADM, pay hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and fines, while several ADM executives serve prison time.

Film adaptation

The book was used as the basis for the movie The Informant!, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre.

References

External links The Informant — Kurt Eichenwald — official Random House website This American Life #168: The Fix Is In (RealAudio) — interview with Mark Whitacre and the book's author, Kurt Eichenwald, from This American Life

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Informant (book)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Informant (book) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Informant (book) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Informant (book) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Informant (book)

In research: The Informant (book) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Informant (book) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Informant (book) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2000 English-language non-fiction books, 2000 non-fiction books, Agriculture books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Informant (book) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Informant (book) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Informant (book) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Informant (book) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Informant (book) in simple terms?

Why does The Informant (book) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Informant (book)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Informant (book).