U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 19583 / March 1, 2006

SEC v. Paul J. Silvester, et al., United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, No. 3:00CV1941 (EBB)

Commission Settles Fraud Charges Against Former Attorney Jerome L. Wilson for Involvement in Connecticut Treasurer's Office Scandal

The Commission announced today that, on February 21, 2006, the Connecticut federal district court entered a final judgment against Jerome L. Wilson, 74, of Essex, Connecticut, in connection with a wide-ranging kickback scheme involving the investment of Connecticut state pension fund money. The final judgment permanently enjoins Wilson, a retired attorney formerly with the New York City firm of Rogers & Wells, LLP, from violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and orders him to pay a civil penalty in the amount of $50,000.

In October 2000, the Commission filed a civil fraud action against Wilson, former Connecticut state treasurer Paul J. Silvester, two private equity firms, three of their officers and four other individuals involved in the fraudulent scheme. The complaint alleged that, during 1998, Wilson aided and abetted a portion of the scheme in which Silvester awarded investments of hundreds of millions of dollars of state pension fund money in exchange for lucrative fees paid by the private equity firms to Silvester's friends and political associates. According to the complaint, Silvester, who served as treasurer from July 1997 until January 1999, solicited, among others, Landmark Partners, Inc., a private equity firm, to pay substantial finder's fees to Ben F. Andrews, Jr., a political associate of Silvester. In order to secure the state's investment of $150 million of pension fund money, Landmark agreed to pay Andrews $1.5 million, and Andrews agreed to kick back part of this finder's fee to Silvester. According to the complaint, Wilson, who was Landmark's attorney, knew that he was participating in a quid pro quo by arranging for a finder's fee to be paid to someone at Silvester's direction for a transaction that was already underway, and that Andrews and another friend of Silvester, Christopher A. Stack, were paid a substantial fee for essentially doing no work. Wilson provided substantial assistance to Silvester and Landmark by arranging for Andrews and Stack to be inserted into the Landmark deal and by arranging for his law firm to act as a conduit for payments from Landmark to Andrews and Stack.

Wilson, without admitting or denying the allegations contained in the Commission's complaint, consented to the entry of final judgment permanently enjoining him from violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The Commission has previously obtained final judgments against all but one of the defendants in that action, and its case remains pending against Charles B. Spadoni, a former vice-president and general counsel of Triumph Capital Group, Inc.

For further information, see Litigation Release Numbers 16759 (October 10, 2000), 16834 (December 19, 2000), 18436 (October 30, 2003), 18460 (November 17, 2003), 18461 (November 17, 2003), 19241 (May 31, 2005) and 19566 (January 15, 2006).