COLORADO DUST CONTROL COMPANY CHARGED IN
UTAH, WYOMING. CHEMICAL CONSPIRACY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Colorado company was charged today with conspiring to allocate territories in Utah and Wyoming for sales of a chemical used to contain dust on dirt roads.

According to the Department of Justice, this is the fourth case stemming from a two-year investigation by the Antitrust Division into anticompetitive activities among dust control distributors.

WRR Industries Inc. of Carbondale, Colorado, was charged for its involvement in a conspiracy involving magnesium chloride, a chemical spread on dirt roads and other unpaved surfaces to contain dust.

WRR agreed with another dust control distributor, Fremont Chemical Company of Riverton, Wyoming, to divide territories for the sale of magnesium chloride in Utah and Wyoming in 1986, the government alleged. Under the conspiracy, Fremont agreed not to sell magnesium chloride in Utah in exchange for WRR refraining from selling in Wyoming, said the government.

The felony charge against WRR was filed today in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Assistant Attorney General Anne K. Bingaman in charge of the Antitrust Division said the Riverton, Wyoming and Salt Lake City, Utah offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation provided invaluable assistance to the Justice Department during the investigation.

The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of a Sherman Act violation occurring prior to November 16, 1990, is the greatest of a $1 million fine, 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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