SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
             Washington, D.C.

             Litigation Release No.  15689  / March 30, 1998

             SEC  v.  Banner  Fund International, Civil Action No. 94-342
             (EGS) ( D.D.C.)

             The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that
             on March 26, 1998, The Honorable Emmet Sullivan, United
             States District Judge for the District of Columbia, granted
             the Commission's motion for summary judgment against
             defendants Lloyd R.Winburn, Swiss Trade & Commerce Trust
             Ltd., and Eddie R. Blackwell.  The Court enjoined the
             defendants from violating Sections 5 and 17(a) of the
             Securities Act, Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule
             10b-5,  and Section 7(d) of the Investment Company Act.
             Finding that defendants had knowingly and intentionally
             misrepresented the purpose of the investment they had
             promoted and the use to which investors' funds would be put,
             the Court ordered defendants to disgorge, jointly and
             severally, $6.5 million they had raised through their false
             and misleading statements, and to pay $2.69 million in
             prejudgment interest.  The Court previously had entered a
             default judgment against defendant Banner Fund International
             on the same claims.

             From late 1992 through 1994, defendants Winburn and
             Blackwell, both United States citizens operating first out
             of Aruba and later from Belize, offered and sold investments
             in the Banner Fund International Offshore Arbitrage
             Leveraging Program, which they advertised as an opportunity
             for the "little guy" to take advantage of "phenomenal"
             opportunities in the financial markets.  Through the vehicle
             of Banner Fund, under the management of Swiss Trade, Winburn
             and Blackwell claimed that investors' funds would be
             leveraged into large profits with little or no room for
             loss.  In fact, after raising at least $6.5 million from
             mailings targeted primarily at unsophisticated investors
             with small amounts of capital to invest, defendants failed
             to engage in any leverage or arbitrage activity, but instead
             spent the money on real estate and a shrimp farm in Belize,
             and on various trusts in the United States engaged in
             lending money to defendants' relatives and friends.

             In addition to rendering judgment for the Commission, the
             Court denied Blackwell's motion for summary judgment, which
             was based primarily on the contention that, because
             defendants were located in Belize, the Court lacked subject
             matter jurisdiction over the action. To the contrary, the
             Court found, defendants' perpetration of a fraud against
             United States investors through the use of the United States
             mails indisputably established subject matter jurisdiction
             under the federal securities laws.

             For further information, see Litigation Release No. 15311.