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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANG COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 14757 / December 14, 1995

SEC V. THOMAS W. COLLINS AND EDWARD M. COLLINS, N.D.ILL., 95 CIV
7251(BBD), filed December 11, 1995

     The Commission announced the filing of a Complaint on
December 11, 1995 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois against Thomas W. Collins (T. Collins) and
Edward M. Collins (E. Collins) for violations of Sections 5(a),
5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Sections 10(b),
15(a)(1) and 15(c) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and
Rules 10b-5 and 15c1-2 promulgated thereunder.  Specifically, the
Complaint alleges that from December 1984 to June 1994, T.
Collins and E. Collins, through their company Lake States, Inc.,
offered and sold to approximately 460 investors, residing in 15
states, approximately $120 million in unregistered securities, in
the form of investment contracts. In connection with the offer
and sale of these securities, the Complaint alleges that T.
Collins and E. Collins made misstatements and omitted to state
material facts to investors regarding the use of proceeds, the
rate of return and the risk of the investment.  The Complaint
alleges that investors were told that their funds would be pooled
with other investors' funds to invest in commodity futures and
other business ventures.  Instead of investing all of the money
as represented, the Complaint alleges that T. Collins and E.
Collins were running a Ponzi scheme and that most of investor
funds were used to pay personal and business expenses and to pay
interest and principal to prior investors.