SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

LITIGATION RELEASE No. 17764 / October 2, 2002

   INVESTMENT ADVISER PLEADS GUILTY TO THREE COUNTS OF WIRE AND MAIL
   FRAUD IN CONNECTION WITH $1 MILLION FRAUDULENT SOFT DOLLAR SCHEME

   The Commission announced that, on September 26, 2002, Gordon J.
   Rollert, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, pled guilty to two counts of
   wire fraud and one count of mail fraud. Rollert, formerly the
   principal of registered investment advisers Sage Advisory Services LLC
   ("Sage") and Standard Group Holdings LLC ("Standard") of Wellesley,
   Massachusetts, was indicted on these counts by the U.S. Attorney for
   the District of Massachusetts in January 2001. The indictment alleged
   that Rollert made false statements to a registered broker-dealer in
   connection with a fraudulent soft dollar scheme.

   On February 8, 2001, the Commission filed a Complaint in the U.S.
   District Court for the District of Massachusetts in connection with
   the same fraudulent scheme. The Commission's Complaint alleged that,
   between 1990 and April 1997, Rollert defrauded an advisory client, the
   Pakachoag Church, of more than $1.1 million. In its complaint, the
   Commission alleged that Rollert misappropriated the assets of the
   small Auburn, Massachusetts church through fraudulent soft dollar
   practices and by fraudulently offering investments in his own advisory
   business to the church.

   According to the Complaint, Rollert misappropriated soft dollar
   credits generated by trades effected for the Church's endowment fund,
   for which he served as investment adviser. The Complaint alleged that
   between August 1994 and April 1997, Rollert fraudulently submitted
   invoices to a Boston area broker-dealer for soft dollar services that
   FA Partners purportedly provided. In fact, FA Partners was a shell
   that Rollert controlled. After receiving soft dollar checks payable to
   FA Partners, Rollert deposited the checks into an account that he
   controlled. Rollert then withdrew the majority of the funds for his
   personal use.

   In addition, the Complaint alleged that Rollert, without disclosure to
   its clients, improperly used soft dollar credits to pay for over
   $180,000 in business and in undocumented expenses. The Commission also
   alleged that Rollert set the commissions paid by the Church at a rate
   five times the average commission rate paid by other investment
   advisers for soft dollar trades and that Rollert churned the Church's
   endowment account. Further, the Complaint alleged that between 1990
   and 1996 Rollert fraudulently induced the Church to invest $250,000 in
   Rollert's advisory entities. Finally, according to the Complaint, the
   Forms ADV filed with the Commission by Sage and Standard were false