FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1995                      (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

             NEW YORK CITY MANUFACTURER OF MILITARY 
            INSIGNIA CHARGED IN BID RIGGING CONSPIRACY

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An Astoria, New York, military insignia
company was charged today with conspiring to fix prices and rig
bids on sales of military insignia to the Army Air Force Exchange
Service for resale to United States military personnel.
     In a one-count felony charge filed in U.S. District Court in
Philadelphia, the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division
charged D.M.E. Industries Inc. with conspiring to fix prices and
rig bids between January 1990 and December 1993 for military
insignia sold to the Army Air Force Exchange Service for resale
to United States military personnel at military facilities
throughout the United States and abroad.  
     Military insignia are accessories attached to a soldier's
uniform to designate branch of service, unit, rank, and also to
identify the wearer's years of service, campaigns served,
training completed and meritorious and heroic conduct performed. 
     Also today, the Department filed a charge in the same court
against an Ontario, California, manufacturer of embroidered
military insignia, Action Embroidery Corporation, for its
participation in the same bid rigging conspiracy.
     According to the charge, D.M.E. Industries Inc. conspired
with others to suppress and eliminate competition for military
insignia.  D.M.E. carried out the conspiracy by discussing with
its co-conspirators prospective bids for bulk insignia contracts,
designating which company would be the low bidder and submitting
intentionally high bids.  D.M.E. also conspired with other
military insignia companies by discussing and agreeing on the
level of price increases on the Army Air Force Exchange Service
open order contract which covered some 4,000 different military
insignia.
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said the charge resulted from a federal
grand jury investigation of bid rigging and related violations on
military insignia sales to the Department of Defense and related
agencies.  
     The case was filed by the Antitrust Division's Philadelphia
Field Office with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the
investigative arm of the Department of Defense Inspector General,
and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of a
violation of the Sherman Act committed after November 16, 1990,
is a fine of not more than the greatest of $10 million, twice the
gross pecuniary gain the defendant derived from the offense, or
twice the gross pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the
crime.       
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95-503