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


   WISCONSIN ADVERTISING DISPLAY COMPANY AND TWO TOP EXECUTIVES
 AGREE TO PLEAD GUILTY AND PAY OVER $9 MILLION FOR RIGGING BIDS
              AND FIXING PRICES ON BREWERY CONTRACTS


     WASHINGTON, D.C. --  A Wisconsin advertising display company
and two of its top executives today agreed to plead guilty and
pay over $9 million in fines for conspiring to fix prices and rig
bids on advertising displays sold to Miller Brewing Company and
Anheuser-Busch Inc., said the Department of Justice.

     This is the largest criminal antitrust fine in the point-of-
purchase display industry.
     
     The Department's Antitrust Division filed criminal charges
today in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, against Everbrite
Inc., of Milwaukee. The company was charged with engaging in 
conspiracies to rig bids and fix prices on point-of-purchase
display contracts to Miller Brewing Company and Anheuser-Busch
Inc., respectively, over a 10-year period.  Everbrite and the
Department have agreed to recommend that Everbrite pay a $9
million fine. 

     "This $9 million fine represents the largest criminal
antitrust fine in the point-of-purchase display industry," said
Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General, in charge of the
Department's Antitrust Division. "This fine sends a strong signal
that collusion, in this or any industry, will not be tolerated."

     Two of Everbrite's executives, Jon S. Wamser of Mukwonago,
Wisconsin and Henry C. Zeni of Brookfield, Wisconsin, were
charged separately with conspiring to rig bids and fix prices on
point-of-purchase display contracts to Miller Brewing Company and
Anheuser-Busch Inc., respectively. The Department and attorney's
for both Wamser and Zeni are recommending they each be sentenced
to 13-month jail terms and pay fines of $350,000 and $100,000,
respectively.

     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 for
distribution in bars, liquor stores, and restaurants throughout
the country.

     The cases charge that Everbrite Inc., Wamser, Zeni, and co-
conspirators conspired 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 and
Anheuser-Busch Inc., respectively, from the mid-1980's to January
1996, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. 

     Earlier this year, the Division filed cases against three of
the co-conspirators--Zelman Levine, former president of Lakeside
Ltd. Inc., Schutz International Inc. and its former president,
Richard F. Machas.  The three co-conspirators have agreed to
plead guilty and pay fines totaling $800,000.  
  
     The investigation 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 Section 1 of 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 Section 1 of 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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