American Imaging, Inc., Agustin Barres and Paul Granville

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 16744 / October 2, 2000

Securities and Exchange Commission v. American Imaging, Inc., Agustin Barres and Paul Granville, Civil Action No. 00-0940-CIV-Moreno

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on March 9, 2000, it filed a Complaint seeking a permanent injunction against American Imaging, Inc. ("American" or the "Company"), Agustin Barres ("Barres") and Paul Granville ("Granville"). American is a Florida corporation in the business of developing Internet commerce opportunities. Barres was the president of the Company since September 1998, and Granville acted as a consultant since July 1998. American, Barres and Granville consented to the entry of the permanent injunction without admitting or denying the Commission's allegations. In addition, both Barres and Granville were ordered to pay a civil money penalty of $10,000 pursuant to Section 21(d)(3) of the Exchange Act.

The complaint alleged that in March 1999, American issued false press releases over the Internet regarding the projected revenues and net income from the processing of minerals from a mining property, which would accrue to the benefit of American upon their acquisition of Little Dutchman, a New Mexico corporation. The complaint alleged that the representations made by American regarding the projected revenue and net income from the mining property were false and misleading because American relied on certain geological tests as a bases for the projections, while ignoring other geological tests that showed a significantly lower content of minerals in the mining property. The complaint also alleges that the representations made in the press releases were false because sufficient or proper testing was never conducted on the mining property to establish the revenue and net income projections.

Based on the above, the Commission alleged that American, through Barres and Granville, violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder.