FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1997                              (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

  ILLINOIS DISPLAY CO. AND TOP EXECUTIVE AGREE TO PLEAD GUILTY AND PAY
$450,000 IN FINES FOR RIGGING BIDS AND FIXING PRICES ON BREWERY CONTRACTS


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An Illinois advertising display company
and its top executive have agreed to plead guilty today and pay
criminal antitrust fines totalling $450,000 for fixing prices and
rigging bids on advertising displays sold to Miller Brewing
Company in Milwaukee, said the Department of Justice.

     The Department's Antitrust Division filed criminal charges
today in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee against Schutz
International Inc., of Morton Grove, Illinois, and Schutz's
former president, Richard F. Machas of Lake Forest, Illinois.

     Thus far, the Department has brought 20 cases against nine
companies and 17 individuals as a result of its ongoing antitrust
investigation into bid rigging and price fixing in the point-of-
purchase display industry, which began in 1992.  Criminal fines
have totaled $3.7 million.

     Both Schutz and Machas have agreed to cooperate in the
continuing investigation of collusive practices by suppliers of
point-of-purchase displays.  

     Schutz has agreed to pay a fine of $350,000 and Machas has
agreed to pay a fine of $100,000.  Both fines are subject to
court approval.

     Point-of-purchase displays include plastic and neon bar
taps, clocks, inflatables, lamps, lights, and signs which contain
the breweries' brand advertising.  Major breweries in the U.S.
purchase more than $100 million of these displays each year.

     The case charges that Schutz, Machas and co-conspirators
participated in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate
competition by fixing prices, rigging bids, and allocating
contracts for the sale of point-of-purchase displays to Miller
Brewing Company from at least as early as the mid-1980's to
January 1996, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. 
 
     "These charges are the result of the Division's ever-
widening investigation of collusive and anticompetitive
activities in the point-of-purchase industry related to the
brewing business," said Joel I. Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney
General in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division.  "We
expect that more charges will be brought as our investigations
into this industry continue and expand."

     The investigation in Milwaukee is being conducted by the
Antitrust Division's Chicago Field Office and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation in Milwaukee with the assistance of the U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of an
antitrust violation under 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.

     The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of an
antitrust violation 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. 
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