SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 17608 / July 12, 2002

   SEC v. Terry V. Koontz, et al., Civil Action No. 98cv11904NG (D.
   Mass., Sept. 17, 1998)

   The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced today
   that on June 28, 2002, Judge Nancy Gertner of the United States
   District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered final
   judgments against all remaining defendants and relief defendants in
   the Commission's civil enforcement action charging a $20 million
   fictitious prime bank offering fraud. Specifically, Judge Gertner
   granted the Commission's motions for summary judgment against
   Defendant Terry V. Koontz, the architect of the fraud, and his company
   Zone Productions, Inc. ("Zone") and against Relief Defendants Marilyn
   Koontz, Dorothy Gerodemos, Helen Smith, and Anastasia Brooks. Judge
   Gertner also granted the Commission's motion for entry of final
   judgments by default against Defendant Kurt Fox and Relief Defendants
   Emanon II, Inc., Stewart A. Koral, and Nancy Chamich. The judgment
   against Terry Koontz permanently enjoins him from committing
   violations of Sections 5(a), 5(c), and 17(a) of the Securities Act of
   1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
   ("Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and orders him to pay
   disgorgement, jointly and severally with Zone, of $20,000,000 plus
   prejudgment interest of $6,850,585.53, for a total of $26,850,585.53.
   The judgment against Fox permanently enjoins him from committing
   violations of the same provisions as well as Section 15(a) of the
   Exchange Act and orders him to pay disgorgement and prejudgment
   interest totaling $108,442.81. The judgments against the Relief
   Defendants, who all received ill-gotten gains from Terry Koontz, order
   them to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest as follows Marilyn
   Koontz -- $1,226,116; Gerodemos -- $4,229,873; Smith -- $724,865;
   Brooks -- $1,178,553; Emanon II -- $2,550,805.61; Koral --
   $976,018.78; and Chamich -- $1,364,216.49.

   The Commission alleged in SEC v. Koontz, et al. (D. Mass., filed Sept.
   17, 1998), that Terry Koontz orchestrated a scheme in which more than
   80 individuals in 16 states were induced to invest over $19 million in
   a fictitious "international bank debenture trading" program called
   Private Pool, LLC. The Commission further charged that several sales
   agents utilized by Terry Koontz (including Defendant Fox) made various
   false representations to potential investors about Private Pool,
   including representations that investors would earn a return of 1% per
   week for a 40-week trading period, that their funds would be secured
   by government bonds in a two-to-one ratio, and that investors would
   receive a security interest in the bonds evidenced by a UCC-1
   financing statement filed with the State of New York. The Commission