UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

   LITIGATION RELEASE NO. 16366 / NOVEMBER 19, 1999

   SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION V. SUNPOINT SECURITIES, INC., VAN
   R. LEWIS III AND MARY ELLEN WILDER,

   Case No. 6 99-CV-667, USDC, EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, TYLER DIVISION

   The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced
   today that it filed a civil lawsuit charging two corporate officers of
   Sunpoint Securities, Inc. ("Sunpoint" or "the firm"), a self-clearing
   broker-dealer registered with the Commission, with systematically
   looting as much as $25 million from a money market account which the
   firm maintained for its customers. The Commission's complaint alleges
   that from December 1997 through the present, Sunpoint illegally
   transferred money market funds belonging to its customers to the
   firm's clearing account for the firm's operating capital, to satisfy
   the firm's net capital requirements and for the personal benefit of
   the firm's president and chief executive officer. The diversion of
   customer funds resulted in the firm presently having available only
   approximately $12 million in the customer money market account to
   cover about $37 million in money market obligations to its customers.
   As a result of this shortfall, Sunpoint is grossly below its net
   capital and customer reserve requirements. The firm ceased business on
   November 18, 1999.

   Until ceasing business, Sunpoint was a full service, self-clearing
   broker-dealer based in Longview, Texas, which has been registered with
   the Commission since 1989. The firm is a member of the National
   Association of Securities Dealers ("NASD"). Sunpoint has over 100
   registered representatives throughout the country, many of whom
   operate out of one-person offices. The firm also has larger branch
   offices in Fort Worth and Tyler, Texas, Rochester and Yonkers, N.Y.,
   Chantilly, Virginia, and Wyomissing, York and Pittsburgh,
   Pennsylvania. Sunpoint's common stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin
   Board under the symbol "SNPC".

   According to the Commission's complaint, the scheme was devised,
   and/or participated in, by Van R. Lewis, III ("Lewis") and Mary Ellen
   Wilder ("Wilder").

   Lewis, age 53, is the founder, CEO and majority shareholder of
   Sunpoint. Lewis has been in the securities industry since 1988 and is
   a registered principal. In June 1994, Lewis was sanctioned by the NASD
   for violating certain NASD rules which resulted in a net capital
   violation by Sunpoint. In September 1994, he was sanctioned by a state
   securities regulator for violations of the net capital rule and for