FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	AT

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1998                                                                                                             (202) 616-2771

                                                                                                                                                                     TDD (202) 514-1888







FORMER PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN SUBSIDIARY OF WORLD'S NO.2 


LIQUOR COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY TO EMBEZZLEMENT AND 


KICKBACK CONSPIRACY. ADMITS CONSPIRING WITH OTHER


EXECUTIVES TO EMBEZZLE OVER $13 MILLION








	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General
for DOJ'S Antitrust Division, and MARY JO WHITE, US Attorney for
the Southern District of New York, announced that GABRIEL SAGAZ,
former president of Domecq Importers, Inc., pled guilty today in
Manhattan federal court to a charge of conspiracy to defraud and
obstruct the Internal Revenue Service, evade income taxes, and
commit mail fraud.  

	According to the Information, SAGAZ was vice president of
marketing of Domecq Importers, Inc., headquartered in Old
Greenwich, Connecticut, from 1989 until 1995, when he became the
company's president until his resignation in August 1996.  As a
result of the conspiracy, which lasted from at least as early as
1989 until August 1996, SAGAZ and other top executives at Domecq
Importers embezzled over $13 million directly from the company,
and solicited and received another $2 million in kickbacks from 
outside vendors to the company.

	According to the Information, between 1989 and August 1996,
SAGAZ and his co-conspirators embezzled at least $13 million from
Domecq Importers, Inc., with the assistance of certain outside
vendors of advertising materials and services who did business
with the company.  These outside vendors invoiced Domecq
Importers, Inc. for goods never produced and services never
performed.  SAGAZ and his co-conspirators approved the phony
invoices for payment and had Domecq Importers, Inc. pay them. 
The outside vendors then issued checks to shell corporations
controlled by SAGAZ and his co-conspirators.  These checks were
usually deposited in the conspirators' offshore bank accounts. 
The conspirators failed to pay income taxes on most, if not all,
of this money. 

	The Information also charges that SAGAZ and his 
co-conspirators received more than $2 million in kickbacks paid
directly by the outside vendors.  In exchange for the kickbacks,
SAGAZ and his co-conspirators steered contracts to these vendors,
frequently by circumventing or ignoring Domecq Importers'
competitive bidding policy.  "Sagaz and other executives defied
Domecq Importers' competitive bid policy by secretly arranging
for favored suppliers to win contracts," Joel Klein said.  "The
company thereby lost the benefits of competition, and Sagaz and
the other executives were able to continue their corrupt
activity."

	Since 1994 Domecq Importers, Inc. has been an American
subsidiary of Allied Domecq P.L.C., the world's second-largest
liquor company.  Allied Domecq P.L.C. is based in London, and
employs over 70,000 people worldwide.  Domecq Importers, Inc.
imports and distributes numerous brands of liquor, including
Sauza tequila, Presidente brandy, Courvoisier cognac, and
Beefeater gin.

	SAGAZ, age 39, faces a maximum sentence of five years in
prison, three years of supervised release,  and a fine of the
greatest of $250,000 or twice the gross pecuniary gain derived
from the offense, or twice the gross pecuniary loss caused to the
victims of the crime. 

	Mr. KLEIN and Ms. WHITE praised the investigative efforts of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue
Service and said the investigation is continuing.  The
investigation, which is being handled jointly by the Antitrust
Division's New York Field Office and the US Attorney's Office for
the Southern District of New York, began as a result of evidence
uncovered during the Antitrust Division's prosecutions in the
point-of-purchase advertising display industry.  	

# # #


98-117