FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1995                      (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


         SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MANUFACTURER OF EMBROIDERED
       MILITARY INSIGNIA CHARGED IN BID RIGGING CONSPIRACY 

     WASHINGTON, D.C. - An Ontario, California, manufacturer of
embroidered military insignia was charged today with conspiring
to rig bids on sales of military insignia to the Army Air Force
Exchange Service for resale to United States military personnel.
     In a one-count felony charge filed in the U.S. District
Court in Philadelphia, the Department of Justice's Antitrust
Division charged Action Embroidery Corporation with conspiring to
rig bids between January 1990 and December 1993 for military
insignia sold to the Army Air Force Exchange Service for resale
to United States military personnel at military facilities
throughout the United States and abroad.  
     Military insignia are accessories attached to a soldier's
uniform to designate branch of service, unit, rank, and also to
identify the wearer's years of service, campaigns served,
training completed and meritorious and heroic conduct performed. 
     Also today, the Department filed a charge in the same court
against an Astoria, New York, military insignia company, D.M.E. 
Industries Inc., for its participation in the same bid rigging
conspiracy.
     According to the charge, Action Embroidery Corporation
conspired with others to suppress and eliminate competition for
embroidered military insignia.  Action Embroidery Corporation
carried out the conspiracy by discussing with its co-conspirators
prospective bids for bulk embroidered insignia contracts,
designating which company would be the low bidder and submitting
intentionally high bids. 
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said the charge resulted from a federal
grand jury investigation of bid rigging and related violations on
sales of military insignia to the Department of Defense and
related agencies.  
     The case was filed by the Antitrust Division's Philadelphia
Field Office with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the
investigative arm of the Department of Defense Inspector General,
and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of a
violation of the Sherman Act committed after November 16, 1990,
is a fine of not more than the greatest of $10 million, twice the
gross pecuniary gain the defendant derived from the offense, or
twice the gross pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the
crime.          
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95-502