The Citric Acid Conspiracy

In January 1991, Terrance Wilson and Barrie Cox, two top-level officers of the large U.S. agribusiness firm Archer Daniels Midland Company, flew to Europe to meet with representatives of the three largest European manufacturers of citric acid. The two men were unlikely companions. Wilson was a Corporate Vice President and the President of ADM's big corn products division. He had joined ADM decades before, straight from the U.S. Marine Corps, and had worked his way up from near the bottom of the corporate ladder to be only one step removed from the giant company's powerful chairman, Dwayne O. Andreas. Although Wilson lacked a college education, his fierce loyalty to the Chairman and dogged pursuit of ADM's interests had yielded him a position of power and responsibility in ADM unmatched by all but three other officers.

Wilson made quick use of his new contacts. Within a month of the European trip, Wilson had arranged a meeting of the four largest makers of citric acid in the world, a group they would jokingly refer to as the G-4 (Tr. 2626). Wilson, Cox and six other top managers of the G-4 met in Basel, Switzerland on March 6, 1991 to discuss a long list of agenda items, among them how to go about raising prices globally. The citric acid cartel was off and running.