FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1997                         (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


       OWNER OF TEXARKANA, TEXAS BOX COMPANY CHARGED WITH
                   PROCUREMENT AND MAIL FRAUD


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Texarkana, Texas box company owner was
charged today by the Department of Justice with procurement and
mail fraud for participating in a conspiracy that enabled the
company to receive subcontracts to produce boxes and supplies at 
an Army ammunition plant in exchange for paying kickbacks to the
contractor.

     This is the seventh set of charges to arise out of the
Department's ongoing antitrust investigation into procurement
practices at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant. 

     Ward L. Torrans, one of the owners of Commercial Box and
Lumber Company Inc. of Texarkana, Texas, was charged in a
criminal case filed today in U.S. District Court in Jackson,
Tennessee with participating in a conspiracy to defraud the
federal government and mail fraud with respect to the sale of
packing containers and supplies used to transport ammunition
produced at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant.  The conspiracy to
defraud the government was formed in 1989 and continued through
1993. 

     "Those who conspire to corrupt the procurement functions
essential to our country's defense should expect to face criminal
charges," said Joel I. Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney General
in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division.  "The
investigation is continuing."

     The Department said that Torrans and certain employees of
Martin Marietta Ordnance Systems Inc.--the prime contractor that
operated the Milan Army Ammunition Plant for the U.S. Army-
-devised a scheme to assure that Commercial Box and Lumber Company
Inc. would receive subcontracts to produce boxes and other
supplies used at the ammunition plant in exchange for the payment
of kickbacks to certain Martin Marietta Ordnance Systems
employees. 
 
     Torrans also is charged with mail fraud for using the U.S.
Mail as an integral part of the scheme. 
 
     Klein said that the charges arose in connection with an
investigation in Jackson, Tennessee into procurement practices at
the Milan Army Ammunition Plant.

     The case was conducted jointly by the Antitrust Division's
Atlanta Field Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western
District of Tennessee, the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation
Division, the Defense Investigative Service, the Defense Criminal
Investigative Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and
the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue
Service.  

     The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of
procurement or mail fraud is a period of incarceration of five
years and the greatest of a fine of $250,000, twice the gross
pecuniary gain derived from the crime, or twice the gross
pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the crime.  
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97-072