The Informant: A True Story is a nonfiction white-collar crime book written by journalist Kurt Eichenwald and published in 2000 by Random House.

In the early 1990s, at the agri-business conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Mark Whitacre is a corporate vice president and head of the bio-products division.

In November 1992, under pressure from his wife, Whitacre confesses to an FBI agent that he, along with other ADM executives, routinely met with competitors to fix the price of lysine, a food additive.

Over the course of three years, the FBI collects hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes documenting the largest case of price-fixing in history.

With remarkable support from the FBI and his wife, Whitacre recovers from his mental problems and, after leaving prison, is promoted to COO and president of a California biotechnology company.