U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 17516 / May 14, 2002

   SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION V. LOUIS M. LAZORWITZ, J. CHARLES
   REIVES, TRI-STAR INVESTMENT GROUP, L.L.C. A/K/A TRI-STAR INVESTMENT
   GROUP, Defendants, AND LAZOR, LTD., Relief Defendant, Civil Action No.
   1 02-CV-0112 (N.D. Ga.)

       FEDERAL COURT ENJOINS PROMOTERS OF NATIONWIDE SECURITIES FRAUD

   The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced today
   that on May 6, 2002, the Honorable Horace T. Ward of the United States
   District Court for the Northern District of Georgia entered orders of
   permanent injunction and other relief against Louis M. Lazorwitz
   ("Lazorwitz"), and a general partnership Tri-Star Investment Group,
   L.L.C. a/k/a Tri-Star Investment Group ("Tri-Star"). Lazorwitz and
   Tri-Star were ordered to pay disgorgement, prejudgment interest and
   civil penalties in amounts to be resolved upon motion of the
   Commission at a later date. Relief defendant Lazor, Ltd. was ordered
   to pay disgorgement in an amount to be resolved upon motion of the
   Commission at a later date. Lazorwitz, Tri-Star and Lazor, Ltd.
   consented to the entry of the orders without admitting or denying the
   allegations of the Commission's complaint. Defendant J. Charles Reives
   ("Reives") was not affected by the entry of these orders.

   The Commission's complaint alleged a multimillion-dollar, nationwide,
   prime bank type and other securities fraud. Lazorwitz, a Texas
   resident, and Reives, a North Carolina resident, were alleged to have
   promoted the fraudulent scheme as Tri-Star's general partners, in
   which they used the general partnership to offer and sell unregistered
   securities in Tri-Star to over 900 investors in at least 35 states,
   and raised over $15 million, and that Tri-Star, through Lazorwitz and
   Reives, initially represented that Tri-Star would invest in bank
   debentures and later claimed that it might invest in other
   international trade opportunities. The complaint also alleged that
   Lazorwitz and Reives promoted Tri-Star directly and through
   independent agents around the United States known as Facilitators and
   led investors to expect profits of 20% per month in so-called 13-month
   trading programs, after an initial 90-day waiting period. The
   complaint also charged that relief defendant Lazor, Ltd. received
   ill-gotten gains from the fraud without any legitimate claim to those
   assets. Tri-Star, Lazorwitz, and Reives made material
   misrepresentations and omissions of fact to investors concerning,
   among other things, the use of investor funds, the expected returns,
   and investment risks. The complaint further alleged that Lazorwitz and
   Reives misappropriated investor funds for their personal benefit.