By PJ Huffstutter

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A shareholder in agribusiness Archer-Daniels-Midland is pressing the company’s chief executive to resign for failing to clearly explain to investors problems with its internal accounting practices that have sparked a first-reported criminal investigation time by Reuters.

In a LinkedIn post titled “Investor misery has a name: ADM,” Hartwig Fuchs said ADM was the worst stock in his portfolio this year and blamed ADM CEO Juan Luciano.

Fuchs was chairman of the board of German trading company Alfred C. Toepfer International when ADM held a majority stake in the company. Fuchs left Toepfer in 2009 and was acquired by Chicago-based ADM in 2014.

“A German proverb says: the fish always stinks from the head,” Fuchs wrote in his post, dated Sunday.

ADM declined to comment on Fuchs’ post Monday. It was not immediately clear how many ADM shares Fuchs owns.

ADM was forced to amend financial reporting years in March and November after it discovered that sales between its nutrition business and other core units were not being recorded correctly. The company cut its profit forecast for 2024 last month, citing political uncertainty, sluggish demand and “internal operational challenges”.

Federal prosecutors in recent months have expanded their investigations into whether ADM or its employees committed crimes, including securities fraud and conspiracy, according to subpoenas reviewed by Reuters and people familiar with the investigation.

Government investigations are not evidence of wrongdoing and do not necessarily result in charges. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment on the investigation Monday.

ADM’s stock price is down nearly 30% from a year ago, and ADM shareholders, including Fuchs, are asking questions and pointing fingers at who is to blame.

“If a well-paid CEO of such a big company fails to bring clarity within a few months, that is to fully clarify the scandal, to communicate with full transparency about what went wrong and what will be done in the future, win back investors. trust and above all protect the company from long-term damage, then it must go,” Fuchs wrote in his post.

ADM faces other headwinds, including low crop prices, uncertainty over biofuel regulations and a potential U.S.-China tariff battle that could upend global trade flows as early as January, after for President-elect Donald Trump to take office.

(Reporting by PJ Huffstutter in Chicago; Additional reporting by Chris Prentice in New York and Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Chris Reese and Rod Nickel)