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                SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                        Washington, D.C. 

Litigation Release No. 14644 / September 20, 1995     

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. ROBERT M. COCHRAN, MICHAEL
B. GARRETT and RANDALL W. NELSON, United States District Court
for the Western District of Oklahoma, Civil Action No. 95-1477T  
(September 20, 1995)

     The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission")
announced today that it filed a Complaint in the United States
District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma against
Robert M. Cochran, Michael B. Garrett and Randall W. Nelson,
former employees of Stifel, Nicolaus and Company, Incorporated,
("Stifel") a broker-dealer headquartered in St. Louis.  The
Complaint alleges that from 1989 through 1993, Stifel received
millions of dollars in undisclosed payments from third parties
that sold or brokered investments to municipal issuers, and that
Stifel undermined the integrity of the bidding process set up for
the purchase of certain of those investments.  According to the
Complaint, the defendants, who worked in Stifel's former Oklahoma
Public Finance Office, had a duty to disclose conflicts of
interest while advising the issuers about the purchase of the
investments.  The defendants breached their duty and defrauded
the issuers in failing to disclose that Stifel received the
payments from the investment providers or investment brokers. 
The Complaint further alleges that the defendants defrauded
investors by failing to disclose the payments to participants in
the bond issues, including the issuer, bond counsel and/or
special tax counsel, thereby depriving investors of information
material to an assessment of the tax exempt status of the bonds. 
 

     The Complaint alleges that these actions by the defendants
violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Sections
10(b), and 15B(c)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Rule
10b-5 thereunder and Rule G-17 of the Municipal Securities
Rulemaking Board (MSRB).  The Complaint seeks relief including
final judgments of permanent injunction barring future violations
of those provisions, impostion of civil penalties, and against
defendant Cochran, disgorgement of bonuses related to the
improper payments made to Stifel.

     Last month the the Commission filed a related action against
the defendants' former employer, Stifel.  Simultaneously, without
admitting or denying the allegations contained in the Complaint,
Stifel consented to the entry of a Final Judgment enjoining it
from future violations of antifraud and books and records
provisions of the federal securities.  In addition, Stifel agreed
to disgorge $922,741, pay prejudgment interest on that amount of
$263,637 and pay a civil money penalty pursuant to Section 20(d)
of the Securities Act and Section 21(d)(3) of the Exchange Act of
$250,000.  See Litigation Release No. 14587 (August 3, 1995).

     Also today, the United States Attorney for the Western
District of Oklahoma announced that a federal grand jury indicted
Cochran and Garrett on charges relating to the conduct alleged in
the Complaint.

     The Commission's investigation continues as to the conduct
of other entities and individuals involved in this matter.