U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

          Litigation Release No. 15978 / November 17, 1998

          Securities and Exchange Commission v. Hahn Truong, Hieu Truong,
          Hen Truong, Nina Vinh, Mike Pirbazari and Christopher Nguyen,
          Civil Action No. C98-21137SW (N.D. Cal.)

               The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") filed
          an enforcement action in the federal district court in San Jose
          charging six defendants with insider trading in the securities of
          Molecular Dynamics, Inc. ("Molecular"), a high-tech firm located
          in Sunnyvale, California.  The Commission alleges that Hahn
          Truong ("Hahn"), age 36, of San Jose, California, used
          confidential corporate information in selling shares in his then-
          employer, Molecular, and tipped others with the information who
          then sold and/or sold short additional Molecular shares.  The
          defendants' and another tippee's ill-gotten gains collectively
          totaled $429,136.

               Also named in the Commission's action are:  Hieu Truong
          ("Hieu"), age 43, residing in San Jose, California; Hen Truong
          ("Hen"), age 38, whose last known address is in San Jose,
          California; Nina Vinh ("Nina"), age 35, residing in Milpitas,
          California; Mike Pirbazari ("Pirbazari"), age 52, residing in Los
          Angeles, California; and Christopher Nguyen ("Nguyen"), age 35,
          residing in Cupertino, California.

               The Commission's complaint alleges that while employed as
          the manager of the software engineering group at Molecular, Hahn
          obtained material, nonpublic information concerning Molecular's
          anticipated poor financial results for the first quarter of 1994.
          Three weeks before Molecular publicly announced the information
          on April 6, 1994, Hahn used the information to sell all of his
          Molecular stock (33,729 shares) and tipped his brothers Hieu and
          Hen, and his friend Nguyen, each of whom sold all of his
          Molecular shares and sold short additional shares.  Collectively,
          these tippees sold 28,300 Molecular shares and sold short 33,800
          Molecular shares.  The complaint further alleges that Hahn lent
          money to Hen to fund his short sales and received half of Hen's
          short selling profits and that Hahn lent Nguyen $15,000 to short
          sell Molecular stock.

               The Commission's complaint further alleges that Hieu, in
          addition to trading on his own behalf, tipped his sister-in-law
          Nina, who sold all of her 3,000 Molecular shares and sold short
          1,500 shares; Nina tipped her sister and her friend Pirbazari,
          each of whom sold all of her/his Molecular shares (815 and 1,000
          shares respectively).

               When Molecular publicly announced that its quarterly results
          would be lower than expected, its stock price dropped from $10 to
          $6.125, a 38.8% decline.  By using the material, nonpublic
          information to trade Molecular shares before the public
          announcement, the defendants and Nina's sister collectively
          avoided losses totaling $294,151 and made short selling profits
          of $134,985.



               The Commission charged the defendants with violations of
          Section 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 Commission's
          complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement plus
          prejudgment interest thereon, and civil penalties against all of
          the defendants.