UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

     Litigation Release No.  15533 / October 16, 1997

     S.E.C. V. HERNAN JOSE PEREZ, Case No. 97-2502SEC (D. Puerto Rico)

          The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced today
     that on October 10, 1997 Judge Salvador E. Casellas of the United States
     District Court for the District of Puerto Rico entered a temporary
     restraining order against defendant Hernan Jose Perez ("Perez") and relief
     defendant Victor Mestres Ayendez ("Ayendez") that, among other things,
     freezes their assets pending a hearing on a preliminary injunction.

          The Commission simultaneously filed a civil complaint alleging that
     from at least December 1995 through September 1997 Perez, while a broker at
     Clark Melvin Securities Corporation ("Clark Melvin"), a Hato Rey, Puerto
     Rico broker-dealer, misappropriated $2.4 million from at least eight of
     Clark Melvin's customers and one other investor.  According to the
     Commission's complaint, Perez misappropriated money on at least twenty-one
     separate occasions (i) by falsely endorsing checks written to or by his
     customers or (ii) by fraudulently inducing his customers to endorse checks
     to him.   The complaint alleges that Perez lied to his customers (i) by
     telling them that they needed to provide additional funds to cover margin
     debts, which did not in fact exist; (ii) by falsely telling them he would
     use their money to buy investments; and (iii) in at least one instance, by
     falsely telling an investor that he would use the funds to open an
     investment account for the investor.  The Commission's complaint also
     alleges that some of the funds that Perez stole were deposited into a bank
     account in Ayendez's name.

          Perez, 49 years old, is a resident of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. 
     Ayendez operates Agencia Hipica, an off track betting service in Caparra,
     Puerto Rico.

          The Commission's complaint charges Perez with violations of the
     antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, specifically, Section
     17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 of the
     Securities Exchange Act of 1934. (15 U.S.C.  77(q)(a); 15 U.S.C.  78j(b)
     and 17 C.F.R.  240.10b-5).  Among other things, the Commission seeks
     preliminary and permanent injunctions against Perez prohibiting further
     violations of the antifraud provisions, and requests that Perez and Ayendez
     disgorge their ill-gotten proceeds and that Perez pay a civil monetary
     penalty for his misconduct.  










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