U.S. SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 17946 / January 22, 2003

   SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSSION v. FRED ALBERT SCHLUEP

   United States District Court for the Northern District of California,
   Civil Action No. C-02-4193

   The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that, on October 9,
   2002, the Honorable Charles E. Breyer, United States District Judge
   for the Northern District of California, entered a judgment of
   permanent injunction against defendant Fred Albert Schluep, an
   investment adviser formerly doing business as CRA Financial Planners
   in San Mateo, California. The judgment restrained and permanently
   enjoined Schluep from violating Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the
   Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and Section 10(b) of the Securities
   Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.

   Schluep consented to the entry of the judgment without admitting or
   denying the allegations against him in the Complaint that the
   Commission filed on September 4, 2002. The Commission's Complaint
   alleged that from approximately September 1991 through March 2001,
   Schluep misappropriated over $5 million from at least 26 clients by
   forging their signatures on checks and other documents, and lying to
   them, in order to obtain their investment funds. The Complaint further
   alleged that Schluep lulled his clients into believing that the
   misappropriated funds would be repaid by paying them with money from
   other clients' accounts, or giving them checks that were later
   returned for insufficient funds.

   The Commission's Complaint also alleged that Schluep used his clients'
   funds to pay approximately $1.5 million to maintain a commercial
   property in Berkeley, California; $538,0000 to acquire a commercial
   property in South San Francisco, California; and $750,000 to support
   an automotive brake company in Concord, California. According to the
   Complaint, Schluep also used approximately $100,000 of his clients'
   funds to pay personal expenses.

   In addition to a permanent injunction against Schluep, the
   Commission's Complaint sought a judgment requiring Schluep to pay
   penalties, and requiring Schluep and relief defendant Howard G.
   Sylvester to disgorge ill-gotten gains and pay prejudgment interest.
   Sylvester allegedly received ill-gotten gains of approximately
   $955,000.

   On January 22, 2003, the Commission instituted settled administrative
   proceedings against Schluep based on the entry of the civil injunction