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                SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                         Washington, D.C.

Litigation Release No. 14988 / July 23, 1996

United States v. Robert N. Taylor, United States District Court
for the District of Columbia, Criminal No. 96-149 (TFH).

     On July 22, 1996, Robert N. Taylor entered a guilty plea to
one count of wire fraud and one count of felony criminal contempt
pursuant to an information filed by the U.S. Attorney for the
District of Columbia in the U.S. District Court for the District
of Columbia.  Judge Thomas F. Hogan accepted the plea, scheduled
sentencing for September 4, 1996, and jailed Taylor pending
sentencing.  Taylor faces a sentence of up to 5 years'
imprisonment on the wire fraud count.  On the contempt count, the
court, in its discretion, may impose a fine or a term of
imprisonment.  The plea agreement does not cover the fraud
allegations underlying the Commission's separate civil securities
enforcement action against Taylor and others.  Securities and
Exchange Commission v. The Better Life Club of America, Inc.,
Robert N. Taylor, et al., Civil Action No. 95-1679 (TFH).

     In the transactions to which Taylor pled guilty, Taylor
defrauded Better Life Club investors, the Commission, a mortgage
company, and others by refinancing his Fort Washington, Maryland,
house and dissipating over $62,000 he received from the
transaction.  To obtain the refinancing, Taylor signed a false
mortgage application, which overstated his income and failed to
reveal the existence of the Commission's action against him.  The
refinancing also violated the asset freeze order entered last
year in the Commission's civil action, which was designed to
preserve Taylor's assets, including his house, for potential
recovery by the Commission to compensate defrauded Better Life
Club investors.  In his plea, Taylor further admitted having
violated the asset freeze order by conducting hundreds of
prohibited banking transactions after the freeze was ordered,
including withdrawing approximately $290,000 and depositing over
100 investor checks and money orders in undisclosed bank
accounts.

     In the underlying civil enforcement action, the Commission
alleges that Taylor and the Better Life Club operated a $47
million Ponzi scheme in violation of the antifraud and
registration requirements of the federal securities laws. 
According to the Commission's complaint, defendants promised to
double investors' money in 60 or 90 days allegedly through
investments in advertising for the Club's "900" telephone numbers
and other profitable businesses, when in fact defendants used the
investors' funds almost exclusively to pay off earlier investors
and to enrich Taylor, his children, and his live-in companion. 
The scheme was halted by the Court pending a final determination
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of the Commission's action.  See SEC Lit. Rel. No. 14624 (Sept.
5, 1995).