JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CHARGES PENNSYLVANIA
ALUMINUM COMPANY WITH PRICE FIXING

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A nationwide investigation into price fixing in the painted aluminum industry has led to the filing of criminal charges today against a Pennsylvania aluminum company and its chief executive, said the Department of Justice. These are the first charges to come out of an ongoing investigation of the industry conducted by the Department's Antitrust Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Alliance Metals Inc. of West Chester, Pennsylvania, and its owner and president, Bradley B. Evans, were charged in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, with conspiring with other sellers and distributors of painted aluminum products to fix, raise and maintain prices of painted aluminum products they sold throughout the United States.

These painted aluminum products include the canopies and signs that are painted brand-related colors and installed at gasoline stations and convenience stores that have gasoline pumps.

Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, said the conspiracy was formed in January of this year and ended in mid-July, a few weeks after FBI agents searched several suspects' offices in Pennsylvania and Florida.

"Those who conspire to drive up the price of products should expect to face criminal charges," Bingaman said.

The investigation is being conducted by the Division's Atlanta Field Office, with the assistance of the FBI in Atlanta, Philadelphia and West Palm Beach, Florida.

Bingaman said the charges arose in connection with a federal grand jury investigation in Atlanta into collusive practices by sellers and distributors of painted aluminum products.

The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted under the Sherman Act for a violation committed after November 16, 1990, is the greatest of a fine of $10 million, twice the gross pecuniary gain the corporation derived from the crime, or twice the gross pecuniary loss caused to the victims.

The maximum penalty for an individual convicted under the Sherman Act for a violation committed after November 16, 1990, is a period of incarceration of three years and the greatest of a fine of $350,000, twice the gross pecuniary gain the individual derived from the crime, or twice the gross pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the crime.

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