FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1997                         (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


  LONG ISLAND DISPLAY MATERIALS MANUFACTURER AND FORMER SALESMAN
            CHARGED WITH CONSPIRING TO DEFRAUD THE IRS


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Long Island, New York display
materials manufacturer and one of its former salesmen agreed to
plead guilty today to conspiring to defraud the IRS by concealing
cash payments made to a Philip Morris Inc. purchasing agent in
order to secure the company's business, said the Department of
Justice.  The company, Grinnell Lithographic Co. Inc., formerly
of Islip, also improperly deducted these payments on its
corporate tax returns.

     To date, 12 individuals and four corporations have pleaded
guilty or agreed to plead guilty to various federal charges as a
result of the Department of Justice's ongoing antitrust
investigation of bid rigging, commercial bribery and tax related
offenses in the display industry.  In addition, two individuals
and four corporations are awaiting trial in New York on charges
arising from the same investigation.

      The Department's Antitrust Division filed criminal charges
today in the federal courthouse in the Southern District of New
York (New York City) against Grinnell and one of its former sales
representatives, Leslie S. Sutorius.  Sutorius, a sales
representative for Grinnell from 1968 to 1992, currently lives in
Winterville, North Carolina, and is a former Long Island
resident.

     The case charged that Grinnell and Sutorius conspired with
others from January 1989 to January 1992, to defraud the IRS by
concealing and disguising weekly and year-end cash payments made
to a Philip Morris Inc. purchasing agent and then improperly
deducting those payments on Grinnell's corporate income tax
returns.  

     During this period, Sutorius made $400 weekly cash payments
and additional $2000 Christmas gifts to one of Philip Morris'
purchasing agents to ensure that the company would buy Grinnell's
advertising display materials.

     Point-of-purchase display materials are used to advertise
and display various kinds of consumer goods, primarily in retail
stores.

     Joel I. Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge
of the Department's Antitrust Division, said the charges arose in
connection with an investigation in New York City into collusive
practices by suppliers of point-of-purchase display materials.  

     Klein said the investigation, being conducted by the
Antitrust Division's New York field office with the assistance of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue
Service, is continuing.

     Anyone with information concerning bid-rigging, bribery or
fraud in the display industry may contact the New York Division
of the FBI at (212) 384-1000.

     The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of
participating in a conspiracy to defraud the IRS is five years in
prison and a fine not to exceed the greatest of $250,000, twice
the pecuniary gain derived from the crime or twice the pecuniary
loss to the victims, together with the costs of the prosecution.

     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of
participating in the same conspiracy is a fine not to exceed the
greatest of $500,000, twice the pecuniary gain derived from the
crime or twice the pecuniary loss to the victims, together with
the costs of the prosecution.
                               ###
97-031