UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 17538 / May 30, 2002

Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release No. 1562 / May 30, 2002

SEC v. James Murphy, et al., Civ. Action No. 00cv11981-PBS (D. Mass., filed September 26, 2000)

JAMES MURPHY, FORMER CFO OF CENTENNIAL TECHNOLOGIES, ENJOINED FROM VIOLATING FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS AND ORDERED TO PAY A CIVIL PENALTY OF $150,000 FOR HIS PARTICIPATION IN THE FINANCIAL FRAUD AT COMPANY

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on April 29, 2002, the Hon. Patti B. Saris of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered a judgment enjoining James Murphy, Centennial Technologies, Inc.'s former CFO, from violating and aiding and abetting violations of the antifraud, record keeping and internal controls provisions of the federal securities laws. Judge Saris also barred Murphy for ten years from acting as an officer or director of a public company and ordered him to pay a civil penalty of $150,000 for his participation in the financial fraud at Centennial.

The Commission's complaint alleged that between April 1994 and December 31, 1996, Murphy and Emanuel Pinez, Centennial's former CEO, with the assistance of others, engaged in a fraudulent scheme to overstate the value of Centennial's revenues, net income, inventory, and fixed assets in public announcements and in periodic financial statements filed with the Commission. The complaint charged Murphy with violations of §17(a) of the Securities Act, §§10(b) and 13(b)(5) of the Exchange Act and Rules 10b-5, 13b2-1, and 13b2-2 thereunder, and aiding and abetting Centennial's violations of §§13(a), 13 (b)(2)(A), and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Exchange Act and Rules 12b-20, 13a-1, and 13a-13 thereunder.

For further information, please see, Litigation Release Nos. 16170, 15818, 15605, 15548, 15405, 15399, 15295, 15258 and 16725.