Informant by Kurt Eichenwald Read Free Book Online

with many places to hide. But Andreas told me about you, too.’’
    The moment perfectly captured the international role that Andreas had achieved by the mid-1980s. No longer was he a tagalong for Humphrey or Dewey or Nixon; with his political sponsors long dead or deposed, Andreas had come into his own, using his connections to establish relationships with new heads of state—at times, before the American government had. He was one of the first Americans to hold extensive conversations with Gorbachev, back when the Soviet leader was the Secretary for Agriculture. He would also be among the first Americans to meet with Boris Yeltsin, when the future Russian president visited Andreas in Florida. His list of influential friends seemed endless: O’Neill, Bob Dole, the Senate majority leader; Yitzhak Rabin, the once and future prime minister of Israel; Bob Strauss, the Democratic Party superlawyer; Brian Mulroney, the prime minister of Canada; David Brinkley, the television newsman. Some were Dwayne’s neighbors; Andreas helped Dole, Strauss, and Brinkley find apartments at the Sea View.
    With his travels and connections, Andreas had expanded his role as diplomat without portfolio. That same year, 1985, he had helped broker a meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev, working back channels to pass messages between the two men. He assured Gorbachev of Reagan’s good intentions, despite the president’s brusque rhetoric about the Soviets; he eased Reagan’s concerns about the new Soviet leader by passing along word that Gorbachev was a churchgoer.
    “Well,’’ Reagan responded after hearing the message, “I think I’ll meet with him.’’
    With such unusual access to world leaders, Andreas and ADM had also become an important source of intelligence for Washington. He channeled information about world markets to the Agriculture Department; his tips about opportunities overseas often arrived at the Commerce Department. His briefings even reached the White House and the State Department.
    But the most important—and most confidential—of Andreas’s government contacts were with the American intelligence and law-enforcement communities. The CIA and other government intelligence agencies developed particularly close ties with Andreas and his company. Often, at the end of meetings with foreign leaders, Andreas would pass detailed notes to the government for review. Briefings flowed both ways; ADM often relied on information from the intelligence world for meetings with foreign dignitaries.
    Andreas’s relationship with federal law enforcement, particularly the FBI, was more complex. He and his company were financially supportive of law-enforcement causes. Still, for some agents, there were lingering questions about ADM’s commitment to the law. Enough agents were around from the Watergate days to remember Andreas’s role, one questionable enough to lead to charges. Then there were the cases against ADM itself: In 1978 the company pleaded no contest to charges that it fixed prices on contracts in the Food for Peace program; in 1981, the Feds had filed an ultimately unsuccessful civil case charging it with fixing the prices of fructose.
    On top of that, whenever ADM executives chose to cooperate with the Bureau, they seemed to always demand the right to set the terms. One episode with ADM quickly entered FBI lore. In the mid-1980s, Andreas became convinced that his company was being cheated by dishonest traders at the Chicago commodities exchanges. Dwayne sought the FBI’s help and agreed to participate in a sting operation to catch dishonest traders. Agents traveled to Decatur and trained in how to trade. Then, they were sent out on the exchange floors, wired with recorders to tape the misdeeds of others. Andreas was delighted with the plan, which was known to only a handful of executives.
    Such secrets could not be kept for long. Dwayne’s son, Mick, who ran ADM’s trading operation, heard everything and hit the ceiling.