Securities and Exchange Commission

Litigation Release No. 17781 / October 10, 2002

, Civil Action No. 3 01CV00116 (W.D. Va.) (Honorable James H. Michael, Jr.)

   The SEC today announced that it had resolved two contempt motions that
   it had filed against Terry Dowdell, various of his family members, and
   a family-owned auto repair business on February 7, 2002 and April 5,
   2002 in a lawsuit pending before the Honorable James H. Michael, Jr.,
   Senior U. S. District Judge for the Western District of Virginia,
   Charlottesville Division.

   The lawsuit stems from a massive international Ponzi scheme
   orchestrated by Terry L. Dowdell, in which Dowdell, utilizing various
   marketers, raised more than $70 million from investors in the U.S. and
   abroad for a fictitious trading program purportedly involving the
   purchase and sale of foreign bank instruments and purportedly being
   operated by Vavasseur Corporation, a Bahamian corporation that is also
   named as a defendant in this action. Dowdell previously admitted the
   fraud, and consented to the disgorgement of all of his assets.

   Dowdell's family members, including his wife Mary Dowdell, and his
   children Adam Dowdell and Rebecca Dowdell are named as relief
   defendants in this lawsuit. The SEC alleges that Dowdell diverted some
   of the investors' funds to them. The family-owned business, Authorized
   Auto Service, Inc., is also named as a relief defendant in this suit.
   The SEC alleges that Dowdell set up Authorized Auto for his children
   and funded it with $1 million of investor money.

   The contempt motion related to the transfer of $500,000 of investor
   funds to an account in the name of Authorized Auto in violation of an
   asset freeze order that the Court entered on November 19, 2001. The
   SEC's motion alleged that Dowdell and his family members made this
   transfer on the day after Dowdell received notice of the asset freeze
   order. According to the motion, Authorized Auto proceeded to spend
   virtually the entire $500,000 on start-up costs prior to the SEC's
   discovery of the unlawful transfer. The company, which operates an
   auto repair shop in Charlottesville, Virginia, opened for business in
   January 2002.

   In lieu of hearing on the SEC's contempt motion, the parties reached a
   settlement, in which Authorized Auto consented to the entry of an
   order, entered by the Court on September 12, 2002, requiring it to
   disgorge the entire $1 million that Dowdell transferred to the
   company, plus prejudgment interest. Authorized Auto also agreed to the
   appointment of a Receiver over all of its assets, in order to
   facilitate the liquidation of the company's assets.