From: ndallen@r-node.gts.org (Nigel Allen)
Subject: South Carolina Man, Corporation Charged With Bid Rigging
Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 07:03:43 GMT

Here is a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

 South Carolina Man, Corporation Charged With Bid Rigging
 To: National Desk
 Contact: Gina Talamona of the U.S. Department of Justice,
          202-514-2007

   WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 -- The U.S. Department of Justice
said a federal grand jury in Columbia, S.C., today returned a
four-count indictment against Edgar Allen Spears and Young's Food
Stores Inc., both of Sumter, S.C., for participating in a conspiracy
to rig bids for dairy products contracts in South Carolina public
schools and for mail fraud.
   Count one of the indictment charged Spears and Young's Food, the
successor corporation to Sumter Dairies Inc., with participating in a
conspiracy to rig bids to supply dairy products to various South
Carolina school districts in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The indictment said the conspiracy began at least as early as the
spring of 1983 and continued at least through May 1988.
   The three other counts charged Spears and Young's Food with
separate violations of the mail fraud statute by causing the U.S.
Postal Service to deliver three payments from Florence County School
District 3 to Sumter Dairies Inc. to supply milk to the public
schools in that district pursuant to the 1987/1988 school year
contract awarded to Sumter Dairies on the basis of collusive bids.
   During the period covered by the indictment, Spears was the
general manager of Sumter Dairies, a South Carolina dairy
cooperative.  The company was engaged in the sale and distribution of
dairy products in South Carolina.
   Charles A. James, acting assistant attorney general in charge of
the antitrust division, said the charges arose in connection with a
grand jury investigation in Columbia, S.C., into collusive practices
by dairy products suppliers in South Carolina.  James said the
investigation, being conducted by the division's Atlanta field
office, is continuing.
   The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of a violation of
the Sherman Act occurring prior to Nov. 16, 1990, is three years in
prison and a fine not to exceed the greatest of $250,000, twice the
pecuniary gain derived from the crime, or twice the pecuniary loss
caused to the victims of the crime.
   The maximum penalty which may be imposed against a corporation
convicted of a violation of the Sherman Act occurring prior to Nov.
16, 1990, is a fine not to exceed the greatest of $1 million, twice
the pecuniary gain derived from the crime, or twice the pecuniary
loss caused to the victims of the crime.
   The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of mail fraud
violation is five years in prison and a fine not to exceed the
geatest of $250,000, twice the pecuniary gain derived from the
crime, or twice the pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the
crime.
   The maximum penalty which may be imposed against a corporation
convicted of a mail fraud violation is a fine not to exceed the
greatest of $500,000, twice the pecuniary gain derived from the
crime, or twice the pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the
crime.
 -30-
Newsgroups: misc.legal,soc.culture.hongkong