U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Litigation Release No. 18375 / September 29, 2003

, United States District Court for the Northern District of California,
Civil Action, No. C-03-4384-MJJ

SEC Sues Investment Adviser And Its Principal For Misrepresentations That
Caused Tongan Government To Lose Over $24.5 Million

   The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") today announced the
   filing of a civil injunctive action in the federal district court for
   the Northern District of California against Wellness Technologies,
   Inc. ("Wellness"), a former investment adviser and its sole principal,
   Jesse Dean Bogdonoff ("Bogdonoff") for defrauding the Tonga Trust Fund
   ("Trust"), a trust fund established by the government of Tonga. The
   SEC's complaint alleges that from June 1999 to November 2001, Wellness
   and Bogdonoff fraudulently induced the Trust to invest $24.5 million
   in three highly speculative and unsuitable investments. As a result of
   the fraud, the Trust has lost substantially all of its investment. The
   adviser received at least $2 million in commissions from the companies
   whose securities he recommended, as well as $540,000 in advisory fees
   from the Trust.

   According to the complaint, Bogdonoff recommended that the Trust
   invest $20 million with a newly established company that sold
   investments in viatical contracts, which are agreements to purchase
   the benefits of life insurance policies insuring terminally ill or
   very elderly persons. Bogdonoff falsely told the trustees that this
   investment carried "no market risk," despite the risk that the Trust
   could lose all of its investment held by the thinly capitalized
   company. The complaint also alleged that Bogdonoff recommended that
   the Trust invest $4 million dollars and $500,000, respectively, in two
   private companies that Bogdonoff knew were struggling to stay solvent.
   The complaint further alleges that Bogdonoff falsely reported to the
   trustees on several occasions that all three investments were
   increasing in value, when in fact, the investments were failing or
   stagnant.

   The SEC's complaint alleged that by November 2001, the investments
   collapsed or defaulted without returning any of the Trust's investment
   funds.

   The complaint charges Wellness with violating Sections 206(1) and
   206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ("Advisers Act") and
   Bogdonoff with aiding and abetting those violations; it also charges
   Wellness and Bogdonoff with violating Section 10(b) of the Exchange
   Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission seeks a court