FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    AT
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1994                                   (202) 616-2771
                                                         TDD (202) 514-1888


           KANSAS DRYWALL COMPANY CHARGED WITH AIDING MAIL FRAUD
          CONSPIRACY AT A KANSAS CITY SHOPPING CENTER RENOVATION

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Wichita, Kansas, construction company
was charged today with conspiring to commit mail fraud in
connection with the award of a construction contract on the $33
million renovation of a Kansas City, Missouri, shopping center, the
Department of Justice announced.
     This is the eighth case the Department has filed in an ongoing
antitrust investigation into the Kansas City shopping center bid
rigging conspiracy.
     The Department's Antitrust Division charged Midwest Drywall
Co. Inc. of Wichita, Kansas, with aiding and abetting a conspiracy
to commit mail fraud by agreeing to pay money to Bennett
Construction Co. Inc., of Kansas City, Missouri, in order to
receive the drywall construction contract at the Ward Parkway
Shopping Center in Kansas City, Missouri.    Bennett Construction
pleaded guilty and has been sentenced for its role in the
conspiracy.  Bennett Construction's owner, Woodrow W. Bennett, is
awaiting trial on similar charges.
     Ward Parkway, owned primarily by the Kansas Public Employees
Retirement System since 1987, was managed by J.W. O'Connor & Co.
Inc., a New York real estate investment and management company. 
In 1989, O'Connor contracted with a joint venture formed by
Bennett Construction and BK General Contractors Inc. of Atlanta,
Georgia, to seek bids on a number of construction contracts,
including the contract to perform drywall work at Ward Parkway. 
The joint venture also recommended that certain contractors
receive those contracts.
     Assistant Attorney General Anne K. Bingaman of the Antitrust
Division said the charges arose from a federal grand jury
investigation in Kansas City, Kansas.  
     The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust
Division's Chicago Field Office and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation in Kansas City, Missouri, with the assistance of
the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas and the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation in Topeka, Kansas.
     The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of aiding
and abetting a conspiracy to commit mail fraud is a fine that is
the greatest of $500,000, twice the gross pecuniary gain the
corporation derived from the crime, or twice the gross pecuniary
loss caused to the victims of the crime.
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