UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

     Litigation Release No. 15606 / January 5, 1998

     SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. M.T.L. INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, INC.,
     EQUITY ACTION PARTNERS, INC., JOHN K. ROBINSON, LEON HOWARD, AND HARRY
     WALKER, 96 Civ. 7412 (U.S.D.C., S.D.N.Y.) (RWS)

          A federal grand jury in St. Louis has charged Leon J. Howard, Jr., and
     John K. Robinson with twenty-seven counts of conspiracy, wire fraud,
     interstate transportation of stolen money, and money laundering in
     connection with a scheme to defraud investors through the purported sale of
     Guaranteed Insurance Contracts to be issued by major European insurance
     companies ( GICs ).  A third participant in the scheme, Harry Walker, pled
     guilty in March 1997 to one count of money laundering. The case is being
     prosecuted by the United States Attorney s Office for the Eastern District
     of Missouri.

          According to the indictment, in 1993 and 1994, Howard, 50, and
     Robinson, 31, told numerous persons that a company with which they were
     affiliated, M.T.L. International Finance, Inc., had obtained the right to
     sell the GICs in the United States.  A GIC is a contract by which an
     insurance company obtains money by pledging its accounts receivable for
     future premium receipts.  The defendants allegedly represented that GICs
     could be purchased from the European insurance companies and resold at a
     profit on a continuous basis.  The indictment charges that Howard and
     Robinson obtained $550,000 from five individual investors, which instead of
     investing they misappropriated for their own use.

          The indictment, which was returned under seal on November 26, 1997,
     was unsealed after Robinson was arrested in California on December 17,
     1997, released on a $25,000 bond, and ordered to appear in St. Louis on
     January 5, 1998.  Howard, a St. Louis resident, was arrested on December 2,
     1997, and released on a $10,000 bond.  Howard s trial is currently
     scheduled for February 2, 1998, in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis. 
     The defendants face up to five years  imprisonment for each count of
     conspiracy and wire fraud, and up to ten years for each count of interstate
     transportation of stolen money and money laundering.  Walker has not yet
     been sentenced on his guilty plea.

          Howard, Robinson, and Walker are also defendants in a civil securities
     fraud action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission based on the
     same scheme.  The Commission s action was filed in the U.S. District Court
     in Manhattan in September 1996.  At the same time, the Commission s
     Division of Enforcement brought public administrative proceedings against
     Sidney H. Stires, a New York stockbroker, and his firm, Stires & Co., Inc.,




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     alleging that they engaged in securities fraud in connection with the "GIC"
     scheme.  A hearing in that matter was held before an administrative law
     judge in February 1997, but no decision has been issued.


















































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