FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1996                         (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


       WEST VIRGINIA AND SOUTHERN NEW YORK AUTO SUPPLY COS.
       CHARGED WITH RIGGING BIDS ON SURPLUS MILITARY GOODS


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two auto supply companies--one based in
southern West Virginia and the other in southern New York--were
charged today by the Department of Justice with conspiring to rig
bids at government auctions of surplus military material.

     In one-count felony charges filed in U.S. District Court in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Department's Antitrust Division
charged Clark Truck Parts Inc. of Poca, West Virginia, and
Sarafan Auto Supply Inc. of Spring Valley, New York, with
conspiring to rig bids on the purchase of military surplus sold 
by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service--an office of
the Defense Logistics Agency.  The Department said the conspiracy
took place from 1992 through October 1994.

     According to the charges, the companies conspired with
others to suppress and eliminate competition for military surplus
offered for sale at Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service
auction sites in Mechanicsburg and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. 
The companies and co-conspirators carried out the conspiracy by
discussing their bids with one another before various items were
offered up for sale at the auctions.  Included in those
discussions was what price would be bid and who was to be the
winning bidder.

     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said the charges resulted from an
investigation of bid rigging and related violations at surplus
military auctions conducted by the Defense Reutilization and
Marketing Service.  

     The cases were filed by the Antitrust Division's
Philadelphia Field Office with the assistance of the Defense
Criminal Investigative Service, the investigative arm of the
Department of Defense Inspector General, and the United States
Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of a
violation of the Sherman Act is a fine of $10 million, twice the
pecuniary gain the corporation derived from the crime, or twice
the pecuniary loss suffered by the victims of the crime,
whichever is greater.
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96-480