Litigation Release No. 17466 / April 11, 2002

United States Securities and Exchange Commission v. Commercial Express, LLC, et al., Civil Action No. 98-M-2014, U.S. District Court, Colorado.

The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced today that the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado has entered final judgments imposing permanent injunctive and other relief against Commercial Express, LLC ("Commercial") and Progressive Financial, Inc. ("Progressive") in a case the Commission filed against these and other defendants in September of 1998. The Commission alleged that Commercial and Progressive violated the antifraud and registration provisions of the securities laws by offering and selling Commercial securities by way of false, misleading and incomplete information. The Court also entered a final judgment against Nexgen Financial Corporation ("Nexgen"), one of the relief defendants in the action.

The final judgments against Commercial and Progressive were entered by default on March 18, 2002, and permanently enjoin these defendants from violating Sections 17(a)(1), (2) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 10(b) and 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The judgments further order that Commercial and Progressive are jointly and severally liable for disgorgement of $15,545,959.73 and prejudgment interest of $6,386,910.74, and they impose civil penalties of $550,000 on each of Commercial and Progressive. Commercial and Progressive were based in Santa Monica, California.

The final judgment against relief defendant Nexgen was entered by default on March 18, 2002. The Commission alleged that Nexgen had received funds from Commercial and Progressive that were generated by the fraudulent scheme. The judgment orders that Nexgen is liable for disgorgement of $1,754,597.85 and prejudgment interest of $720,859.96. Nexgen was located in Delray Beach, Florida.