SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
     Washington, D.C.  20549

     Litigation Release No. 15578 / December 4, 1997

     Accounting and Auditing Enforcement 
     Release No. 993 / December 4, 1997 

     SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. PETER T. CASERTA, SALVATORE T. MARINO
     AND DANA C. VERRILL, United States District Court for the Eastern District
     of New York, Civil Action No. CV 97-7091        .

     The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the filing of a
     complaint with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
     New York against Peter T. Caserta, Salvatore T. Marino and Dana C. Verrill,
     former directors and officers of Spectrum Information Technologies, Inc. 
     Spectrum, currently headquartered in Purchase, New York, has been engaged
     in various aspects of the computer industry since its inception in 1984. 
     According to the Commission s complaint, Caserta and Verrill devised a
     scheme to raise capital for Spectrum illegally.  Thereafter, Caserta and
     Marino engaged in a fraudulent scheme to inflate Spectrum s financial
     results and stock price.  During this period, Caserta and Marino benefited
     by selling Spectrum stock while in possession of material nonpublic
     information concerning the scheme.

     Specifically, the complaint alleges that during 1992, Caserta and Verrill
     obtained cash to finance their floundering company s operations by
     conducting an unregistered stock offering.  The distribution of stock was
     effected by disguising it as stock sales to employees under an employee
     stock option plan.  This offering, which Caserta and Verrill directed and
     controlled, raised approximately $3 million for Spectrum.

     Having obtained necessary cash and thus having improved Spectrum s
     prospects, according to the Complaint, defendants Caserta and Marino turned
     their attention to boosting Spectrum s stock price.  In May 1993, in an
     interview with a reporter, defendant Caserta knowingly overstated the value
     of a licensing agreement that Spectrum had entered into with AT&T Co.  This
     material misstatement was disseminated to the public, artificially
     inflating Spectrum s value, thereby defrauding investors and triggering
     then-record trading in Spectrum s stock.    

     The Complaint also alleged that between May and November 1993, defendants
     Caserta and Marino fraudulently overstated the value of three additional
     licensing agreements Spectrum negotiated.  In order to convince the public
     and other potential licensees of the value of Spectrum s patented
     technology, Caserta and Marino set out to arrange  seven figure  license
     payments by Megahertz Corporation, Apex Data Corporation and U.S. Robotics,
     Inc.  However, when each prospective licensee refused to pay seven figures
     to license Spectrum s technology, Caserta and Marino conceived and
     implemented a cash in/cash out scheme whereby the vast majority of the
      seven figure  fees to be paid by the licensees would be offset by equal
     payments from Spectrum to the licensees under companion advertising

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     agreements.  At the direction of Caserta and Marino, Spectrum s filings
     with the Commission improperly reflected the  seven figure  licensing fees
     as revenue and income.  Because of this improper accounting treatment, and
     corresponding misleading disclosures and press releases, investors were
     misled into thinking that Spectrum had earned millions of dollars in fees
     and had experienced its first two consecutive profitable quarters when, in
     reality, Spectrum could not obtain licensing fees of that magnitude and had
     suffered significant losses.

     The Commission further alleged that defendants Caserta and Marino benefited
     from their scheme by exercising options and selling Spectrum stock while in
     possession of the material nonpublic information that Spectrum s technology
     was not worth what Spectrum s filings and press releases claimed it to be,
     and that Spectrum continued to experience significant losses during the two
     quarters for which Spectrum had improperly reported a profit.  Caserta and
     Marino avoided millions of dollars in losses by trading while in possession
     of this material, nonpublic information.  

     The Commission s action seeks judgments: (1) permanently enjoining
     defendants from further violating the securities laws; (2) requiring each
     defendant to pay appropriate civil penalties under the securities laws; (3)
     requiring Caserta and Marino to disgorge all losses avoided as a result of
     their trading on insider information, plus pre-judgment interest; and (4)
     permanently prohibiting Caserta and Marino from acting as a director or
     officer of any issuer that has a class of stock registered with the
     Commission or is required to file reports with the Commission.

     The Commission s investigation in this matter is continuing.

























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