In a striking legal development, a shareholder has filed a derivative lawsuit against the top executives and directors of a major agricultural supply chain company, alleging widespread accounting fraud. The complaint was lodged by Brad Bullough on April 14, 2025, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, targeting several high-ranking officials of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (ADM).
The lawsuit accuses ADM's leadership of engaging in fraudulent accounting practices that inflated the financial performance of its Nutrition segment from 2018 to 2023. This alleged misconduct is said to have misled investors about the company's true financial health and prospects. According to the complaint, ADM's executives manipulated intersegment sales prices to artificially boost profits within its Nutrition division—a strategic area touted as central to ADM's growth strategy. The plaintiff claims that these actions were driven by incentives tied to executive compensation packages linked directly to the segment’s performance.
Plaintiff Brad Bullough asserts that during the period from April 30, 2020, through January 21, 2024, ADM executives made false statements regarding the profitability and growth potential of their Nutrition segment. These misleading statements allegedly led to an artificial inflation of ADM’s stock price. The complaint highlights how this scheme unraveled when ADM announced an internal investigation into its accounting practices following a voluntary document request from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This revelation caused a significant drop in ADM’s stock price by approximately 24%, erasing around $8.8 billion in market value.
The plaintiff seeks various forms of relief from the court, including compensatory damages for losses incurred due to stock price inflation and restitution for all benefits unjustly received by defendants through insider trading based on non-public information. Additionally, Bullough demands reforms in corporate governance and internal controls at ADM to prevent future occurrences of such fraudulent activities.
Representing Bullough are attorneys whose names were not disclosed in the filing document provided here. As for those defending ADM and its officers, their legal representation details remain unspecified as well. The case is presided over by judges yet unnamed under Case ID: 1:25-cv-04052.