WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Houston insulation company executive was charged today by the Department of Justice with fixing prices on insulation for metal buildings sold to customers in Texas and Louisiana.

This is the Department's fourth case as a result of an ongoing nationwide antitrust investigation into suspected price fixing in the metal building insulation industry. Insulation for use in metal buildings is made of fiberglass coated with aluminum or plastic.

The Department's Antitrust Division filed a criminal felony charge in U.S. District Court in Houston today against Yun Lung Yueh, also known as Peter Yueh. Yueh is Executive Vice President of Hiplax International Corp., a Houston insulation company, which does business as Brite Insulation.

The case charged that Yueh conspired with others, from January 1994 through June 1995, to raise, fix, and maintain prices for the sale of insulation sold to metal building customers in Texas and Louisiana in violation of the Sherman Act. On September 30 of this year, Hiplax International and the company's Vice President of Sales, Jerrold Warren Killingsworth were also charged for their role in the same price fixing conspiracy. Hiplax and Killingsworth will be arraigned on October 29 in federal district court in Houston.

Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division, said that the investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division's Dallas Field Office with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Houston Office.

The maximum penalty for an individual convicted under the Sherman Act is three years in prison and a fine of $350,000, twice the pecuniary gain the individual derived from the crime, or twice the pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the crime, whichever is greater.