FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1996                           (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

FLORIDA ALUMINUM COMPANY AND ITS OWNER CHARGED WITH FIXING PRICES

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A nationwide investigation into price
fixing in the painted aluminum industry has led to criminal
charges being filed today against a Florida aluminum company and
its chief executive.  This is the second set of charges to come
out of the investigation which is being conducted by the Justice
Department's Antitrust Division and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
     Wrisco Industries Inc., of West Palm Beach, Florida, and its
owner and president, Agostino James Monastra, were charged in a
criminal case filed in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach
with conspiring with other sellers of painted aluminum products
to fix, raise, and maintain prices of painted aluminum products
they sold throughout the United States.  
     The most common examples of painted aluminum products are
the canopies and signs that are painted brand-related colors and
installed at gasoline stations and convenience stores that have
gasoline pumps.
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General for the
Antitrust Division, said the conspiracy was formed in January
1995 and ended in July 1995, a few weeks after FBI agents
searched the offices of Wrisco and Alliance Metals Inc., a
competitor based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
     Alliance Metals and its president and owner, Bradley B.
Evans, pleaded guilty to fixing prices in November 1995.  On
February 12, 1996, Alliance Metals was fined $1.15 million and
Bradley Evans was sentenced to six months house arrest and placed
on probation for 42 months.
     "Those who conspire to drive up the price of products should
expect to face criminal charges," Bingaman said.  
     Bingaman said that the investigation, which is being
conducted by the Division's Atlanta Field Office, with the
assistance of the FBI in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and West Palm
Beach, will continue.
     The charges arose in connection with a grand jury
investigation in Atlanta into collusive practices by sellers of
painted aluminum products, Bingaman added.
     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of a
violation of the Sherman Act is the greatest of a fine of 
$10 million, twice the gross pecuniary gain the defendant derived
from the crime, or twice the gross pecuniary loss caused to the
victims of the crime.
     The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of a
violation of the Sherman Act is a period of incarceration of
three years and the greatest of a fine of $350,000, twice the
gross pecuniary gain the defendant derived from the crime, or
twice the gross pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the
crime.
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