SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 16936 / March 21, 2001

   UNITED STATES V. ARON OLEG BRONSTEIN, ET. AL., U.S. District Court,
   S.D.N.Y., No. 00-CR-1179 (MBM)

   TWO OWNERS OF MANHATTAN BROKERAGE FIRM, OTHERS, SENTENCED ON CRIMINAL
   FRAUD CHARGES

   The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced that
   on March 16, 2001, J. P. Gibbons & Co., Inc., a Manhattan brokerage
   firm formerly known as The Golden Lender Financial Group, Inc.
   ("Golden Lender"); Aron O. Bronstein and Tomer M. Yuzary, co-founders
   and principal owners of Golden Lender; and Roman Sakharovich, a/k/a
   Roman Sakh, and Iosif Pak, a/k/a Joseph Pak, registered
   representatives of Golden Lender, were sentenced on criminal charges
   arising out of a fraudulent offering of Golden Lender stock. United
   States District Judge Michael B. Mukasey sentenced Bronstein and
   Yuzary each to three years and ten months in prison, Sakh to three
   years and five months in prison, and Pak to three years in prison.
   Judge Mukasey also ordered that Golden Lender be dissolved and that
   the other defendants liquidate their assets and pay restitution to the
   victims of the fraud in the amount of $3,209,000. The individual
   defendants had previously pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and
   securities fraud; Golden Lender had previously pleaded guilty to
   charges of securities fraud. The criminal case was prosecuted by the
   Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New
   York.

   The Commission previously instituted a civil action against the
   defendants, SEC v. Aron O. Bronstein, et. al., 00 Civ. 1179
   (S.D.N.Y.)(LAK), based on the same conduct underlying the criminal
   charges. The Commission´s complaint charges that, from January 1998
   through November 1999, the defendants raised at least $5,270,000 in a
   fraudulent, unregistered offering of Golden Lender stock. The
   complaint alleges that, acting at Bronstein and Yuzary´s direction,
   Sakh and Pak sold Golden Lender stock to retail customers -- including
   many elderly and infirm customers of modest means -- using a high
   pressure sales pitch that included numerous material
   misrepresentations and omissions. Among the misrepresentations and
   omissions allegedly used by the defendants to induce investors to part
   with their savings are the following
     * False representations that Golden Lender would soon conduct an
       initial public offering and that investors would reap large
       profits once the firm went public;
     * Failure to inform investors of the risks associated with investing
       in Golden Lender, including Golden Lender>´s precarious financial