UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

         LITIGATION RELEASE NO.  16154 / May 19, 1999

         Securities and Exchange Commission v. Funding Resources Group, et
         al.
          #3-98CV2689-X, USDC, ND/TX (DALLAS DIVISION)

                 SEC ACCUSED FRAUDSTER ARRESTED FOR CIVIL CONTEMPT

              On May 17, 1999, Judge Joe Kendall, United States District
         Judge for the Northern District of Texas, held defendants Earl
         McKinney of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and Fortune Investments, Ltd.
         ("Fortune„), and relief defendant Treds Financial Trust ("Treds„)
         in civil contempt for their failure to provide an accounting of
         investors' funds as required by the Court's November 13, 1998
         order.  For his flagrant disregard of the Court's order,  Judge
         Kendall issued a bench warrant for McKinney's arrest, and ordered
         that he be taken into custody and be confined until the Court
         determines that he has provided an adequate accounting, under
         oath, for himself and Fortune and Treds, a corporation and a trust
         under his control.  The United States Marshal took McKinney into
         custody on May 18.

              According to the Commission's complaint, McKinney and Fortune
         participated in a scheme involving the fraudulent sales of
         interests in a succession of non-existent prime bank trading
         programs which raised over $14 million from hundreds of investors.
         Investors were told that these programs were successful, that
         their funds were completely secured by guarantees issued by banks
         or insurance companies, and that the investments would generate
         returns between 6% and 18% per month.   In fact, the trading
         programs did not exist, there were no such guarantees, and the
         defendants used most of the investor funds for their own benefit
         and the benefit of the relief defendants, and for payments to
         other investors (ponzi payments).   The complaint charges that
         McKinney used approximately $1 million in investor funds to
         purchase and furnish his Eden Prairie home.