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         UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION


LITIGATION RELEASE NO. 15387 / June 16, 1997

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. ROBERT CLIFFORD COWAN
No. 5:96-CR-023, USDC/ND, TX (Lubbock Division)

     The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") and
the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas
announced that on June 4, 1997, Robert Clifford Cowan ("Cowan")
of Lubbock, Texas, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison,
with three years supervisory release.  Cowan was also fined
$25,000 and ordered to pay $4.2 million restitution. Previously,
Cowan pled guilty to one count of mail fraud which charged that
he received over $400,000 from a client for the purpose of
investing in trust units in CS Investments ("CSI"), an entity
which Cowan represented to be an investment company registered
with the Commission, and that the client received checks from
Cowan purportedly representing interest from his trust account
when, in fact, the checks represented monies taken in from new
investors in the CSI trust accounts.

     On June 2, 1997, in a related civil action, an Agreed Final
Judgment was entered in federal district court enjoining Cowan,
CSI, and Cowan Asset Management, Inc., a registered investment
adviser, from future violations of the antifraud provisions of
the federal securities laws. According to the complaint, Cowan
raised at least $1 million, and as much as $3 million, from his
customers for the purpose of purchasing trust units in CSI. In
fact, according to the complaint, CSI does not exist, apart from
Cowan's misrepresentations and created records, and does not hold
securities or funds for customers; rather, Cowan used customers'
funds for his personal expenses, and to satisfy periodic payments
and redemptions for his customers as part of a "ponzi" scheme.