FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                       97-73



          SEC ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF DAVID P. NELSON 
                   AS DEPUTY REGIONAL DIRECTOR




     Washington, D.C., September 3, 1997 -- Chairman Levitt today
announced the selection of David P. Nelson as Deputy Regional
Director in the Commission's Southeast Regional Office (SERO).  The
region comprises offices in Miami, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia,
and has both enforcement and regulatory programs in an eight state
area, and in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.  As Deputy
Regional Director, Mr. Nelson will assist the Regional Director in
overseeing these programs in the SERO, as well as coordinating
these functions with those in the Atlanta District Office.

Mr. Nelson initially joined the Commission staff in 1984 as an
Attorney in the Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C.,
following a period of time in private practice in Philadelphia.  In
1986, he was assigned as a Special Assistant United States Attorney
in the Securities and Commodities Fraud Unit of the U.S. Attorney's
Office in the Southern District of New York.  From 1986 to 1990, he
worked on a variety of complex criminal cases involving insider
trading and other financial fraud.  Among those matters was the
case involving Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert.  Mr.
Nelson returned to the Division of Enforcement as a Branch Chief in
1990 and transferred to the SERO in 1992.  During his tenure at the
SERO, Mr. Nelson has served in several positions of increasing
responsibility in the enforcement program.  For the past two years,
he has worked as the Assistant Regional Director (Enforcement) and
the Associate Regional Director of the SERO.  In this latter
capacity, he has directed the enforcement, regulation and
litigation programs in that Office.

     Mr. Nelson graduated from Princeton University in 1979 and
received his J.D. Degree from the Georgetown University Law Center
in 1983.



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