FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    AT
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1995                                  (202) 616-2771
                                                         TDD (202) 514-1888

     CHICAGO MAN WILL PAY $425,000 CIVIL PENALTY TO SETTLE CHARGES OF
VIOLATING ANTITRUST PREMERGER NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- William F. Farley, the controlling
shareholder of a Chicago hosiery and textile products company,
will pay a $425,000 civil penalty to settle charges that his
company's 1988 acquisition of stock in a Georgia company violated
antitrust premerger requirements, the Department of Justice's
Antitrust Division announced today.
     The Department filed a proposed consent decree today in U.S.
District Court in Chicago that would settle its 1992 case
alleging that Farley violated the premerger notification and
waiting period requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act when his
company, Farley Inc., acquired more than $15 million in voting
securities of West Point-Pepperell in 1988.  Farley agreed to
make the payment under the terms of a consent decree, which must
be approved by the court.
     The complaint, filed by the Department at the request of the
Federal Trade Commission, alleged that Farley violated the act on
March 24, 1988, when Farley Inc. failed to file premerger
notifications before acquiring more than $15 million of voting
securities of West Point-Pepperell of West Point, Georgia, also a
manufacturer and seller of hosiery and other textile products. 
Farley Inc., according to the complaint, went on to acquire 
approximately 4.8 percent of West Point-Pepperell voting
securities without filing required premerger notifications.  The
complaint alleged that the violation continued through June 22,
1988.
     Assistant Attorney General Anne K. Bingaman, in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said, "The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act provides
a vital antitrust enforcement tool by requiring that parties to
certain large mergers and acquisitions notify the antitrust law
enforcement agencies and observe a waiting period before
consummating their transactions, unless they fall within a
clearly recognized exemption, which did not happen in this case.
     "Although the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act exempts acquisitions of
10 percent or less of a company's stock made 'solely for the
purpose of investment,' Farley was considering acquiring control
of West Point and thus the acquisition was not 'solely' for the
purpose of investment," Bingaman continued.
     The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act of 1976, an amendment of the
Clayton Act, imposes notification and waiting period requirements
on individuals and companies over a certain size before they
consummate acquisitions of stock or assets over a certain value
or ownership percentage.
     The act permits a federal court, upon the Department's
request, to assess a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each day
a person is in violation.
     The Antitrust Division litigated this case utilizing
attorneys from the Federal Trade Commission who were appointed as
Special Attorneys pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 515.
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95-019