SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

   Litigation Release No. 16664 / August 28, 2000

   SEC v. Bilzerian, Civil Action No. 89-1854 (SSH) (U.S. District Court
   for the District of Columbia)

   The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that on August
   21, 2000 the Honorable Stanley S. Harris, U.S. District Judge for the
   District of Columbia, held Paul A. Bilzerian in civil contempt of two
   orders of disgorgement and prejudgment interest that had been entered
   against him. To purge the contempt, Judge Harris ordered Bilzerian to
   (1) begin paying $5,000 per month into the Registry of the Court, (2)
   file a sworn accounting of all assets held in his name and in the
   names of various family corporations, partnerships and a Cook Islands
   Trust, (3) account for income, expenditures and transfers of Bilzerian
   and these entities; (4) produce his tax returns and the tax returns of
   these entities for the past four years, and (5) produce formation and
   governing documents for his various entities. The Court ordered these
   conditions for purging Bilzerian's contempt without prejudice to a
   further order imposing additional conditions after receipt of
   Bilzerian's disclosures. The Court further ruled that if Bilzerian did
   not comply with the order to purge his contempt, he would be
   incarcerated until he did so.

   The Court originally entered disgorgement and prejudgment interest
   orders totaling $62 million against Bilzerian in January and June
   1993. The case arose out of a "greenmail" scheme engaged in by
   Bilzerian, through which he extracted large profits by making
   deceptive filings with the Commission in order to appear to be a
   credible takeover threat to two corporations. The corporations turned
   to friendly suitors, or "white knights" to rescue them from
   Bilzerian's purported hostile takeovers, which bought Bilzerian's
   shares at a substantial profit to Bilzerian. After unsuccessfully
   appealing the disgorgement judgment, Bilzerian attempted to discharge
   the Commission's judgment in his bankruptcy. Once the U.S. Court of
   Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled against Bilzerian on this
   issue, the Commission brought this contempt action, alleging that
   Bilzerian had concealed his assets through a complex network of family
   corporations, partnerships, and an offshore asset protection trust
   formed under the law of the Cook Islands. Among assets held by the
   Cook Islands trust is the Tampa mansion formerly owned by Bilzerian.
   On being notified by the Commission that Bilzerian was attempting to
   sell the mansion, the Court previously ordered a freeze of any
   proceeds from the mansion's sale.

   For further information, see Litigation Releases 15146, 14526, 14170,
   13506.