The Informant

The Informant is the upcoming tale of an Ivy League Ph.D. known as Mark Whitacre, played by Matt Damon. Whitacre was a rising star at Decatur’s Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s who wound up blowing the whistle on the company’s price-fixing tactics.

One night in early November, 1992, the high-ranking ADM executive did something extraordinary when he confessed to FBI agent Brian Shepard, played by Scott Bakula, that ADM executives-including Whitacre himself-had routinely met with competitors to fix the price of lysine, a food additive. As the highest-ranked executive to ever turn whistleblower in US history, Whitacre secretly gathered hundreds of hours of video and audio over several years to present to the FBI.

In the upcoming film — a dark comedy/thriller in director Steven Soderbergh’s hands — Whitacre’s good deed dovetails with his own major infractions and struggle with bipolar disorder. In a stunning turn of events immediately following the covert portion of the case, headlines around the world reported that the whistleblower defrauded $9 million from his own company at the same period of time he was secretly working for the FBI and taping his co-workers. Because of this major infraction and Whitacre’s bizarre behavior that was laced with bipolar disorder, he was sentenced to prison three times longer than the white-collar criminals he helped to nab. However, ten years later (2008), the former FBI supervisor of the price fixing case, Dean Paisley (played by Allan Havey), with backing from the two other FBI agents and a former prosecutor, went public with praise about Whitacre. "Had it not been for the fraud conviction, he would be a national hero", Paisley said. "Well, he is a national hero", the former FBI supervisor stated.

Cast
Matt Damon portrays a top Archer Daniels Midland executive, Mark Whitacre.
Scott Bakula portrays FBI agent Brian Shepard.
Melanie Lynskey portrays Mark Whitacre's wife, Ginger.
Thomas F. Wilson portrays Mark Cheviron.
Joel McHale portrays FBI agent Robert Herndon.
Allan Havey portrays FBI Supervisor Dean Paisley.
Jimmy Pardo and Paul F. Tompkins.

Detail Info
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Produced by Jennifer Fox and Gregory Jacobs
Written by Scott Z. Burns
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) March 27, 2009
Country United States
Language English