FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         CRM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1997                          (202) 514-2008
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

           FORMER ADM OFFICIAL IN MEXICO PLEADS GUILTY


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced that
Reinhard Richter, former president of Archer Daniels Midland
(ADM) Mexico, entered pleas of guilty today to charges of
conspiracy involving schemes to defraud ADM and to assisting
former ADM BioProducts Division president Mark E. Whitacre in
defrauding the Internal Revenue Service. 
 
     The guilty pleas were entered before U.S. District Judge
Harold Baker in federal court in Urbana, Illinois.

     Richter, 46, now residing in Mexico, was president of ADM
Mexico from 1991 to 1995.  He admitted conspiring with Whitacre
to submit fictitious invoices to ADM and to facilitating the
transfer of almost $226,000 to Whitacre through Richter's Texas
bank account.

     He also assisted Whitacre's filing of false income tax
returns through the use of the Texas bank account, according to
court papers.

     Whitacre, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, also pled guilty
in U.S. District Court in Urbana on October 10 to charges of wire
fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the IRS, filing
false income tax returns, and interstate transportation of stolen
property. 
  
     The prosecution was conducted by the Fraud Section of the
Criminal Division of the Department of Justice with the trial
team of Nancy J. Jardini, Donald B. Mackay and James J. Nixon. 
The case was investigated by Special Agent Anthony P. D'Angelo of
the Chicago Office of the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigative
Agents Michael Bandy and Sue Roderick of its Springfield,
Illinois, Office.

     Sentencing has been scheduled for January 30, 1998.
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