==========================================START OF PAGE 1====== U.S. Securites and Exchange Commission LITIGATION RELEASE NO. 15021 \ August 22, 1996 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION V. ROBERT L. SHULL, LEONARD E. FIESSEL, AND COLLEEN FIESSEL (United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Civil Action No. 94-11759-REK) The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today the entry of final judgments by the Honorable Robert E. Keeton of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts against Robert L. Shull ("Shull"), Leonard E. Fiessel ("L. Fiessel") and Colleen A. Fiessel ("C. Fiessel"). The Court permanently enjoined Shull, L. Fiessel and C. Fiessel from violating Sections 5 and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 ("Securities Act") and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Court also ordered Shull, L. Fiessel and C. Fiessel to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of $667,770.46, $560,611.92, and $139,602.11, respectively, for a total of $1,367,984.40. Shull consented to the entry of the final judgment without admitting or denying the allegations in the Commission's Complaint. The Court entered the final judgments against L. Fiessel and C. Fiessel after they were defaulted. The Complaint, which was filed on August 31, 1994, alleges that from January 1993 to September 1993, Shull and the Fiessels agreed to acquire a controlling interest in Fairmont Resources Inc. ("Fairmont"), to manipulate the price of Fairmont's stock and to sell their holdings in Fairmont at prices that were artificially enhanced by their manipulation. To further this scheme, Shull and the Fiessels paid kickbacks in the form of cash and/or stock to one U.S. promoter and five U.S. stockbrokers. The Complaint alleges that the kickbacks, the total value of which was approximately $600,000, were essentially bribes to induce the stockbrokers to recommend and sell Fairmont stock to their U.S. retail brokerage customers and resulted in the sale of over one million shares of Fairmont to more than 150 residents in seventeen states. The Complaint further alleges that Shull and the Fiessels used several Canadian brokerage accounts in various names to conduct a pattern of manipulative trades in Fairmont during the spring of 1993. As a result of their manipulative activity, the price of Fairmont rose from $0.30 (Canadian) per share to $3.05 (Canadian) per share in a period of less than six months. The federal court previously entered orders enjoining Patrick Collins, Mark Hamel ("Hamel"), Robert Raffa ("Raffa"), Jeffrey Fernandez, Michael Murphy and William Cho ("Cho") from future violations of the securities laws and ordering disgorgement of the amounts each received as kickbacks from Shull and the Fiessels. The Commission barred them from association ==========================================START OF PAGE 2====== with any broker, dealer, municipal securities dealer, investment advisor or investment company, and from participating in the offering of any penny stock. Raffa, Hamel and Cho also have pleaded guilty to federal criminal securities fraud charges. For further information, see Litigation Release Nos. 14213, 14342, 14352, 14441.