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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION


UNITED STATES v. PHILIP ANDRE RENNERT, DAVID REX YEAMAN, MICHAEL
LEWIS MILLER, GEORGE RAYMOND JENSEN, AND NOLAN LEIGH MENDENHALL,
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Criminal
No. 96-51), April 17, 1997

LITIGATION RELEASE NO.  15339 / April 17, 1997

     The Commission today announced that on Wednesday, April 16,
1997, following a five week trial, a jury in the U.S. District
Court in Philadelphia returned verdicts in a multiple count
indictment charging conspiracy to commit wire fraud and
securities fraud, as well as substantive securities fraud.  The
scheme involved the creation of public companies by reverse
merger from public shells whose stock had initially been  gifted 
to churches and other institutions, and which had sat on the
shelf for over three years; the subsequent manipulation of the
markets for those stocks; the leasing of the stocks to off-shore
reinsurance companies to be used as assets to inflate their
balance sheets; and the deposit of some of those stocks with
Philadelphia banks that acted as escrow agents for reinsurance
treaties with Pennsylvania insurance companies.

     The jury found Philip Rennert of Salt Lack City, UT, David
Rex Yeaman of Salt Lake City, UT, and Michael Miller, a lawyer
from Beverly Hills, CA, guilty on 11 of the 13 counts with which
they were charged.  The two remaining defendants, George Jensen
and Nolan Mendenhall, also of Salt Lake City, UT, were found
guilty of substantive securities fraud counts in connection with
the pledging of the stocks into the Philadelphia banks.  The jury
was unable to reach a unanimous verdict for these two defendants
on the conspiracy and substantive wire fraud counts.  The
defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on July 21, 1997.