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HVIDE MARINE, INCORPORATED

WASHINGTON, D.C. - HVIDE Marine, Inc. today pled guilty to a one count criminal information of making unlawful payments to Walter J. Browne, an official of a labor organization, the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section announced.

According to the information, filed on May 15, 2000 in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, HVIDE Marine paid Walter J. Browne $60,000 between January 1, 1995 through at least December 31, 1995, while Browne was serving as an officer of a labor union which represented, sought to represent, or would have admitted to membership the employees of HVIDE Marine, Inc. In its plea agreement, HVIDE Marine admits that at the time it made these payments and others, it understood Walter J. Browne to be an official of District 1, Marine Engineers Beneficial Association of the AFL-CIO.

Further, HVIDE Marine admits that in 1995, it entered into a venture with other business partners to build state-of-the-art double hulled tankers, which, based on certain financing restrictions, required HVIDE Marine and its partners to obtain an agreement with a labor organization to crew these tankers with union based labor.

According to the plea agreement, in 1995, officers and agents of HVIDE Marine approached Walter J. Browne and inquired whether he could secure a labor contract between HVIDE Marine and DI MEBA which would contain terms favorable to HVIDE Marine's interests. Thereafter, officers and agents of HVIDE Marine and its business partners in the double hull tanker project met with officials of DI MEBA, including Walter J. Browne, and attempted to negotiate an agreement for DI MEBA to provide union labor on the double hull tankers. Under the terms of the plea agreement, HVIDE Marine has also agreed to cooperate in the government's continuing investigations.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor, Division of Labor Racketeering, with the assistance of the Washington, D.C. Field Office of the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Sotiris Planzos and Julia Stiller of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Department of Justice.

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