FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
FRIDAY, MAY 5, 1995                                (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888




             TEXAS WHOLESALE PLUMBING SUPPLY COMPANY
                    CHARGED WITH PRICE FIXING


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An Amarillo, Texas, wholesale plumbing
supply company was charged today by the Department of Justice
with fixing prices of wholesale plumbing supplies.  This is the
fifth case brought as a result of the Department's Antitrust
Division's ongoing investigation into the wholesale plumbing
supply industry in Amarillo, Texas.
     Fields & Company of Amarillo Inc. was charged in U.S.
District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, with conspiring with others,
from September 1989 until December 1991, to raise, fix, and
maintain prices of wholesale plumbing supplies sold from their
places of business in Amarillo, Texas.
     Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said today's charge resulted from an
ongoing grand jury investigation in Fort Worth, Texas, of
suspected price fixing within the wholesale plumbing supply
industry.
     The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust
Division's Dallas Field Office with the assistance of the
Amarillo Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of a Sherman
Act violation occurring after November 16, 1990, is the greatest
of $10 million, twice the gross pecuniary gain the defendant
derived from the offense, or twice the gross pecuniary loss
caused to the victims of the crime.
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95-256