FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                              2002-47


  SEC FILES EMERGENCY ACTION TO HALT $98 MILLION PRIME BANK
              SCHEME, RECOVER INVESTORS’ FUNDS
                              
     Washington, DC, March 27, 2002—The Securities and
Exchange Commission announced today that it has obtained
emergency court orders to shut down a nationwide, $98
million prime bank scheme and recover victims’ money.
     
     In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in
Dallas, Texas, the SEC alleged that a Tacoma, Washington
company, Resource Development International (RDI), and its
two principals, David and James Edwards—a “father-son
team”—bilked more than 1,300 investors nationwide in a
“prime” bank scheme that targeted retirement funds.
     
     U.S. District Court Judge Jerry Buchmeyer issued a
repatriation order Wednesday that requires the scam’s
promoters to return to the U.S. tens of millions of dollars
that they had moved offshore.  Earlier this week, Judge
Buchmeyer granted the SEC’s request for a temporary
restraining order directing the promoters to immediately
cease their illegal activities.  The court also granted the
SEC’s requests for an asset freeze and the appointment of a
receiver to take possession of money and other assets for
the benefit of the victims of the scam.

     According to the SEC complaint, the Edwards and a team
of “facilitators” falsely claimed to investors that their
money would be used in Europe to trade financial instruments
with “top 25” or “top 50” banks in a program sponsored by
the Federal Reserve and global organizations.  Investors
were promised annual returns of 48 to 120 percent with
complete safety of principal, and with 50% of excess profit
going to humanitarian causes, according to the SEC complaint
     
     However, neither the financial instruments touted by
RDI nor the markets on which they purportedly trade exist.
The Commission alleges that, instead, the Edwards and their
accomplices used investor funds for their own personal and
unauthorized purposes while telling victims that their
investment returns were tied-up by anti-terrorism efforts.
     
     “These schemes involving the purported issuance,
trading or use of so-called “prime” bank or “top 25 or 50”
world bank instruments are flagrantly fraudulent,” said SEC
Fort Worth District Administrator Harold F. Degenhardt.
“Even more outrageous were claims by the defendants that
delays in paying investors were due to the tragic events of
September 11th and new anti-terrorism regulations.”

     The SEC’s lawsuit names Resource Development
International, LLC, of Tacoma, Washington; Jade Asset
Management, Ltd., incorporated in Nevis, West Indies; Sound
Financial Services, of Tacoma, incorporated in Nevada; David
Edwards, of University Place, Washington; James Edwards, of
Tacoma, Washington, and the father of David Edwards;
Intercoastal Group, LLC, of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a Nevada
limited liability corporation; Intercoastal Group II, LLC,
of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a Delaware and Nevada limited
liability corporation; Blackwolf Holding, LLC, of Manitowoc,
Wisconsin, a Nevada limited liability corporation; Gerald
Stock, of Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Kevin Lynds, of Wichita
Falls, Texas; and William Whelan, of Visalia, California.
     
     Additional information on how prime bank and other
banking-related investment schemes work can be found at the
SEC’s Prime Bank Fraud Information Center
(http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/primebank.shtml) in
the Enforcement Section of the SEC Web site.  For further
information about the RDI lawsuit see SEC Litigation Release
No.  LR-17438.

                           #  #  #

Press Contacts: Spencer C. Barasch, Associate District
Administrator, and Jeffrey Norris, District Trial Counsel
for the SEC’s Fort Worth, Texas District Office, (817) 978-
3821.