UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

     Litigation Release No. 15479 /  September 8, 1997

     SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. AMERICAN BUSINESS SECURITIES,
INC.,
     SOUTHWEST ENERGY CONSULTANTS, INC., WESTERN ENERGY ACQUISITIONS,
INC.,
     TRANS TERRA CORPORATION, INTERNATIONAL, MacARTHUR ASSET MANAGEMENT,
INC.,
     BARRY J. ZIMMERMANN, JOHN L. CASPERSON, JR., JEFFREY L. CASPERSON,
JEROME
     L. CASPERSON, JOSEPH L. CASPERSON, TIM L. EPPS, and THOMAS A. HICKS,
Civil
     Action No. 94-4866 ER (C.D. Cal.)

          The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on September
2,
     1997, the Honorable Edward Rafeedie of the Central District of
California
     issued an Order Finding Kathryn Casperson In Civil Contempt And
Ordering
     Her To Self-Surrender On September 26, 1997.  The Court ordered that
     Kathryn Casperson surrender to the Office of the United States Marshal
on
     September 26, 1997, to be incarcerated until she complies with the
     accounting and disgorge- ment portions of the Court's January 28,
1997
     disgorgement Order.

          The Commission had sought contempt sanctions based upon Kathryn
     Casperson's failure to disgorge funds and assets received as a result
of
     the participation of her spouse, Defendant Jerome Casperson, in the
     fraudulent scheme by which approximately $40 million was raised from
over
     1200 mostly elderly investors, or to account for the expenditure of
such
     funds and assets.  The Court found that Kathryn Casperson was in
contempt
     of court for failure to account for two cash withdrawals totalling
$88,100,
     and her current sources of income.  In so finding, the Court stated