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         UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 14938 / June 6, 1996

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. JOSEPH C. PALMISANO
2: 94 CV 205 (D.Vt.) 

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that in an Order
dated May 29, 1996, the Honorable Franklin S. Billings, Senior
Judge for the United States District Court for the District of
Vermont, issued a Final Judgment of Permanent Injunction and
Other Relief against former Vermont attorney Joseph C. Palmisano.

The Judgment, issued after the District Court granted the
Commission's Motion for Summary Judgment against Palmisano on
April 30, 1996, permanently enjoins Palmisano from violations of
the registration and antifraud provisions of the federal
securities laws.  The Final Judgment also directs Palmisano to
pay disgorgement, representing his ill-gotten gains, plus
prejudgment interest, totalling $9.1 million, in addition to a
civil penalty of $500,000. 

Palmisano, formerly of Barre, Vermont, was of counsel to
Palmisano Associates, a now defunct Berlin, Vermont law firm.

The Commission's Complaint, filed on July 14, 1994, alleges that
from at least December 1987 through November 1992, Palmisano
solicited individuals to purchase investments.  According to the
Complaint, Palmisano raised approximately $8 million from more
than ninety investors.

In its decision granting the Commission's Motion for Summary
Judgment, the District Court found that Palmisano had failed to
demonstrate that there was a dispute of fact to the evidence
submitted by the Commission in support of its motion.  Those
papers show that Palmisano made false and misleading statements
to investors, including telling investors their money would be
pooled in a fund and used to purchase property and inventory from
bankrupt companies at a discount, which would then be resold at a
profit.  The Commission's papers show that these representations
were false.  Not only was there no evidence that Palmisano used
any investor money to make purchases on behalf of investors, the
evidence showed that Palmisano diverted investor money for his
personal use, used investors' money to make payments to earlier
investors, and commingled investor money with his own.

In addition, evidence put forward by the Commission in support of
its motion demonstrated that investors in Palmisano's scheme lost
large sums of money and some faced foreclosure on their
properties. 
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On September 5, 1995, Palmisano pleaded guilty to criminal
charges in connection with the above and was sentenced to 188
months in prison.  He is currently serving his sentence.

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The Commission thanks the Office of the United States Attorney
for the District of Vermont and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation for their assistance in this matter.