The Informant Is Back At Work

theodp writes "Fortune catches up with former ADM exec and whistleblower Mark Whitacre, who talks about watching his life on screen in the dark comedy, The Informant!. Among other things, Whitacre apologizes to Fortune for duping the magazine in a 1995 interview when his bipolar-fueled compulsive lying was in its full glory. Thanks to a Ph.D. he earned from Cornell in nutritional biochemistry, and an understanding CEO who was involved in prison ministry, Whitacre is now COO of Cypress Systems, where he's been working since spending nine years in prison for embezzlement. And yes, his wife really did stand by him through the wild ride."

Comments

the system works!

[Trepidity]

Glad to see that someone who stole $9 million is able to once again serve as a corporate executive.

Re:the system works!

[Geoffrey.landis]

Glad to see that someone who stole $9 million is able to once again serve as a corporate executive.

Well, he's an executive at a small company that sells selenium as a treatment for cancer, which is a treatment of very dubious efficiacy. ("dubious" in that the actual clinical trials didn't show any improvement.)

Re:the system works!

[Coda A27]

Glad to see that someone who stole $9 million is able to once again serve as a corporate executive.

He served eight years in prison and, after finishing his sentence, found gainful employment with an open-minded employer with the skillset he possesses. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Re:the system works!

[palegray.net]

There isn't anything wrong with that. The man served his time, and he's a productive member of society again. The comments for this story are, unfortunately, going to be spearheaded by individuals who don't have the talents to serve as an effective executive in the first place. Thus, we get to read a hundred different spins on the "but he committed a crime" theme, all fueled by basic jealousy. Interestingly, this is the same crowd that seems to have no problem celebrating Kevin Mitnick's turnaround and subsequent success.

Re:the system works!

[Rary]

Most prisoners can't afford to get PhDs. I wonder where he got the money and found the time for education like that (a PhD no less!); most prison jobs pay slavery wages.

He didn't get his PhD in prison. He had it long before his time at ADM.

Re:the system works!

[timmarhy]

kiven's situation is vastly different.

this guy STOLE 11.5 million from his employer, then went on to accuse the FBI of all kinds of bullshit. he's a border line nut job as well as a rotten theif.

kevin on the other hand never stole a cent from anyone, just hacked a bunch of company's system to see how they worked. his only crime was making them and the FBI look like idiots.

Your point?

[bazald]

He helped the FBI to expose the price-fixing scheme of his company and served his time. Assuming someone is inspecting his work, what more do you want from the guy?

Re:Your point?

[interkin3tic]

Maybe repay the people he ripped off? I know. Completely unreasonable isn't it.

I say start pestering him for that 9 million right after ADM pays the taxpayers back their billions and billions of dollars.

...and no, the fact that what Whitacre did was against the laws but what ADM is doing isn't really doesn't matter much to me.

To Be Human

[Anonymous Coward]

I've lived around bipolar people my entire life. I myself suffer from moderate OCD / ADHD, so when I run into a relative or friend who is in the manic phase, it's sort of like oil and water. I'm over-cautious, and they're just three sheets to the wind, mentally speaking. I remember finally learning about bipolar when I was 21, and wondering why nobody told me to brace myself when I was around these people. But the average person, I think, didn't know much about it until very recently.

I remember the one who broke into his high school to change his grades (almost as some sort of graduation present for a new detective on the force), the 60-year-old neocon woman who bought a very expensive car on a secretary's salary, then ditched it in a parking lot and rode cross-country with a friend to start a rock band, and the one who stopped taking his meds and switched to a "natural" cure that had him taking 40 vitamin pills every day, just to get "trace minerals" that ended up doing nothing for him but keeping him in bed all day, depressed. Or the one who submitted some INCREDIBLY Jackass-like videos to America's Funniest Videos back before Jackass was on TV. Those poor screeners must have been mortified, lol.

On the other hand, I've had some amazing moments with bipolar people. Just being there for them when they are bummed out, when they're sleeping on the couch all day with their boss calling every half hour, or their mom calling, freaking out that they're going to commit suicide like their dad did.

I am in awe of people who work in the mental health industry. I'm an illustrator/designer by trade, and among those who have used the services of mental health professionals are artists like Norman Rockwell, Georges Remi, Otto Preminger, etc. These are people who needed clarity and direction, among other things, just to get out of bed in the morning or start the next project.

Spoilers

[Arakageeta]

Gee, thanks for the spoilers!

Listen to This American Life podcast on Whitacre

[Kozz]

It's really a fascinating story. A full nine years before the film was created, Ira Glass and crew at This American Life did a podcast on the event. Have a listen. http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=168

Missing Piece

[Killer Napkin]

A lot of people wonder about the strange events in the life of Mark Whitacre. As I was reading through the Fortune article, I immediately noticed the fingerprints of the life of a Christian. So I looked it up and it seems that Christianity played a huge role in the story of Mark Whitacre. Obviously, you can't put that in modern films, but he covers it in other sources and talks freely about it in numerous interviews. You can Google and find plenty of references. I thought I'd mention it, not just because I'm a Christian, but because it answers a lot of questions: his claim that his wife was his "moral compass", why she didn't leave him, and his contrite apology at the end of the interview. I suspect it also has much to do with the CEO who was involved in "prison ministry" that later hired him up at Cypress.

See? We're not all anti-evolutionist, racist, hate-mongers.* :-)

* Some of us are just ex-conartist/embezzlers :-)

Re:Missing Piece

[PPalmgren]

Kind of off-topic, but one late night I was up watching boring TV and saw some awful hour-long show soleley trying to argue that the founding fathers of the US were Christian. I couldn't turn it off because it seemed so bizzare to me that someone would talk for an hour over something so pointless. I get the same vibe from your post. Why does it matter if someone is a Christian or not? I don't understand the logic of even bringing something up like this, since I see zero causation between his religion and his actions. Please enlighten me.

Re:Missing Piece

[jeffasselin]

It matters to me. Someone who is clearly Christian automatically loses much credibility with me. If he's willing to believe there's some invisible guy listening when he mumbles to himself, what other absurdities is he going to be ready to believe?

Re:Listen to This American Life podcast on Whitacr

[MonsterTrimble]

I second listening to the podcast. It's a wonderful piece of storytelling and the stainless steel set this guy had blew my mind. Granted he was bipolar, but what he did was exceptional.

I want to see the movie because of the podcast. It's that good.