SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

   Litigation Release No. 16368 / November 23, 1999

Securities and Exchange Commission v. World Financial & Investment Co., Inc.
and Victor M. Wilson, U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y., No. 99-CIV-7608 (ILG)

   The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed fraud charges
   against a Brooklyn lawyer and his investment advisory firm, for their
   role in a Ponzi Scheme conducted through a supposed bank chartered by
   the non-existent "Dominion of Melchizedek." Named in the Commission's
   Complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
   New York are
     * Victor M. Wilson, age 47, of Brooklyn, New York; and
     * World Financial & Investment Co., Inc. ("World Financial"), an
       investment advisory firm wholly-owned by Wilson that operated from
       Wilson's Brooklyn law office.

   The Complaint alleges as follows

   Acting directly and through "sub-agents" on the Caribbean island of
   Dominica, Wilson raised approximately $1.2 million from hundreds of
   investors in the United States and Dominica from March 1997 through
   April 1998. The money was invested in a so-called "60-40 program"
   promoted by Credit Bank International Co. ("Credit Bank") and its
   founder, Roger E. Rosemont. Credit Bank is purportedly chartered in
   Melchizedek, and Rosemont claimed he was Melchizedek's "ambassador at
   large" to the Carribbean. In truth, the 60-40 program was a Ponzi
   scheme, Credit Bank is not a bank, Melchizedek is not a country, and
   Rosemont is no ambassador.

   Wilson received approximately $175,000 in fees for his role in the
   scheme. He played a central role by soliciting U.S. investors and
   channeling funds to bank accounts controlled by Rosemont. Wilson told
   investors that they would obtain returns in excess of 300% to be
   disbursed over a period of several months. The astronomical returns
   would purportedly result from profits Rosemont would generate by
   pooling and reinvesting funds in unspecified financial instruments.
   The relatively small number of investors who entered the scheme in its
   early stages obtained tremendous returns, including Wilson himself,
   who reaped $23,800 in profits from his early investment of $4,166.
   Most investors, however, received no disbursements and lost all the
   money they invested.

   Wilson promoted the scheme despite receiving strong signals indicating
   that it was a fraud
     * Rosemont told Wilson that he had been arrested on fraud charges in
       France, where the authorities had frozen his bank accounts;