SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C.

Litigation Release No. 17604 / July 9, 2002

   United States v. William H. Black, et al., No. 1 00CR15 SPM (N.D.
   Fla.)

   JAMES A. FRANKLIN, JR., FORMER IN-HOUSE ATTORNEY TO PROFESSIONAL
   SPORTS AGENT "TANK" BLACK, SENTENCED TO 54 MONTHS IN PRISON AND
   ORDERED TO PAY $12 MILLION IN RESTITUTION FOLLOWING PARALLEL CRIMINAL
   PROSECUTION

   The Commission announced that on July 8, 2002, James A. Franklin, Jr.,
   a former South Carolina attorney and in-house counsel to sports agent
   William H. "Tank" Black, was sentenced to serve 54 months in prison
   and ordered to pay $12 million in restitution stemming from charges
   that he conspired with Black to defraud Black's athlete-clients. The
   Hon. Stephan P. Mickle imposed the sentence after a hearing in United
   States District Court for the Northern District of Florida
   (Gainesville Division).

   Franklin previously pleaded guilty to (i) one count of conspiring to
   commit wire fraud and to obstruct the SEC's parallel investigation and
   (ii) one count of conspiring to commit money laundering. The United
   States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida prosecuted
   Franklin for the same conduct that underlies a civil enforcement
   action brought by the Commission in February 2000 against Franklin,
   Black and others in United States District Court in the Middle
   District of Florida. The Commission's lawsuit, which has been stayed
   pending resolution of the criminal case, alleges that Black, Franklin,
   Professional Management, Inc. (Black's sports agency business) and
   Professional Management Consulting, Inc. (Black and Franklin's related
   consulting business) defrauded nearly two dozen client-athletes of
   millions of dollars they entrusted to them for investment purposes,
   including investments in Cash 4 Titles, a purported car title loan
   business that was, in fact, an offshore Ponzi scheme.

   Judge Mickle ordered that Franklin serve his 54-month sentence
   concurrently with an existing 32-month sentence handed down in May
   2001 by a federal court in Detroit. In the Detroit case, the U.S.
   Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan prosecuted Franklin for
   his role in helping launder $1.1 million of drug money through the
   Cash 4 Titles Ponzi scheme. Franklin began serving the Detroit
   sentence in July 2001. Franklin's 54-month Gainesville sentence
   reflects a substantial downward departure from federal sentencing
   guidelines. In making that departure - and in deciding that Franklin
   should serve the Gainesville sentence concurrently, not consecutively,