FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1997                             (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


          WISCONSIN EXECUTIVE CHARGED WITH PRICE FIXING
            ON METAL BUILDING INSULATION SOLD IN TEXAS


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The executive of a Green Bay, Wisconsin
insulation supply company was indicted today by a Houston federal
grand jury for price fixing and conspiring to commit wire fraud
involving the sale of metal building insulation sold in Texas and
surrounding states, said the Department of Justice.

     This is the fifth case brought as a result of the
Department's ongoing nationwide antitrust investigation into
suspected price fixing in the metal building insulation industry.

     Today's indictment was filed in U.S. District Court in
Houston against Mark Albert Maloof of Birmingham, Alabama. 
Maloof is a regional sales manager of Bay Industries Inc., which
does business as Bay Insulation Supply Co. in Green Bay,
Wisconsin.

     Maloof is charged with conspiring with others, between
January 1994 and June 1995, to raise, fix, and maintain prices
for the sale of metal building insulation he and co-conspirators
sold from their facilities in Texas, in violation of the Sherman
Act.

     The indictment also charged Maloof with conspiring to commit
wire fraud.  Court papers charged that while Maloof was in
Birmingham, Alabama, he had telephone conversations with co-
conspirators in Atlanta; Stone Mountain, Georgia; Kansas City,
Missouri; and Houston for the purpose of carrying out the price
fixing conspiracy.  Maloof, while in Birmingham and Atlanta, is
also charged with carrying out the price fixing conspiracy by
using a fax machine to communicate with co-conspirators in Dallas
and Atlanta.

     In September 1996, a Houston-based insulation company,
Hiplax International Corp., which does business as Brite
Insulation, and two of its executives--Jerrold Warren
Killingsworth and Yun Lung Yueh, also known as Peter Yueh--were
charged with price fixing in the sale of metal building
insulation. 

     In June 1996, the Department also charged Huber Wally Rhodes
Jr., an executive with Atlanta-based Mizell Bros. Co., with price
fixing in the metal building insulation industry.

     Sentencing for these earlier cases is scheduled for 
July 15, 1997.

     Joel I. Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge
of the Department's Antitrust Division, said the charges resulted
from a nationwide investigation into suspected price fixing in
the metal building insulation industry.  The investigation is
being conducted by the Antitrust Division's Dallas Field Office
with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
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.  

     The maximum penalty for an individual convicted under the
wire fraud statute is five years in prison, a fine of $250,000,
or both.
                               ###
97-202