FORMER DUCOA EXECUTIVE CHARGED
WITH PRICE FIXING ON CHOLINE CHLORIDE

WASHINGTON, D.C.--A federal grand jury in Dallas today indicted the former president of DuCoa, L.P., based in Highland, Illinois, with participating in a nationwide conspiracy to fix prices, rig bids and allocate customers in the choline chloride industry, the Department of Justice announced.

Choline chloride, commonly known as vitamin B4, which is sold by manufacturers and resellers to customers in the animal nutrition industry, is administered to animals to ensure their proper growth and development.

According to the indictment filed today in U. S. District Court in Dallas, Daniel T. Rose of Highland, Illinois, agreed with his co-conspirators to suppress and eliminate competition in the choline chloride market in the United States from approximately August 1997 through September 29, 1998.

“This is the eighth prosecution involving choline chloride and the 30th case arising from the long running vitamins investigation being conducted by the Division’s Dallas Field Office,” said R. Hewitt Pate, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division.

Rose is charged with participating in meetings and conversations with his co-conspirators to discuss the prices and volume of choline chloride, agreeing to set choline chloride prices, agreeing to allocate choline chloride customers and rigging bids for contracts to supply choline chloride.

Rose is charged with violating Section One of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine of $350,000. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

The ongoing investigation of the worldwide vitamin industry is being conducted by the Antitrust Division's Dallas Field Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Dallas.

###

03-338