UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

     Litigation Release No. 15479 /  September 8, 1997

     SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. AMERICAN BUSINESS SECURITIES, INC.,
     SOUTHWEST ENERGY CONSULTANTS, INC., WESTERN ENERGY ACQUISITIONS, INC.,
     TRANS TERRA CORPORATION, INTERNATIONAL, MacARTHUR ASSET MANAGEMENT, INC.,
     BARRY J. ZIMMERMANN, JOHN L. CASPERSON, JR., JEFFREY L. CASPERSON, JEROME
     L. CASPERSON, JOSEPH L. CASPERSON, TIM L. EPPS, and THOMAS A. HICKS, Civil
     Action No. 94-4866 ER (C.D. Cal.)

          The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on September 2,
     1997, the Honorable Edward Rafeedie of the Central District of California
     issued an Order Finding Kathryn Casperson In Civil Contempt And Ordering
     Her To Self-Surrender On September 26, 1997.  The Court ordered that
     Kathryn Casperson surrender to the Office of the United States Marshal on
     September 26, 1997, to be incarcerated until she complies with the
     accounting and disgorge- ment portions of the Court's January 28, 1997
     disgorgement Order.

          The Commission had sought contempt sanctions based upon Kathryn
     Casperson's failure to disgorge funds and assets received as a result of
     the participation of her spouse, Defendant Jerome Casperson, in the
     fraudulent scheme by which approximately $40 million was raised from over
     1200 mostly elderly investors, or to account for the expenditure of such
     funds and assets.  The Court found that Kathryn Casperson was in contempt
     of court for failure to account for two cash withdrawals totalling $88,100,
     and her current sources of income.  In so finding, the Court stated that: 

          "The SEC is engaged in trying to enforce the Court's disgorgement
          Order to obtain funds for victims of Jerome Casperson's
          multimillion-dollar fraud.  This is an important goal that must
          not be obfuscated by stonewalling or by an unsupported invocation
          of the Fifth Amendment privilege."

          The Court similarly found that Kathryn Casperson was in contempt
     because she failed to account for $26,500 in cash she personally received
     from a bank account held jointly with her spouse.  The Court found that
     "Something more than a bald statement of non-recollection" was required for
     Kathryn Casperson to meet her burden to show, categorically and in detail,
     an inability to comply with the Court's disgorgement and accounting order. 


          Finally, the Court found that Kathryn Casperson was in contempt for
     failure to disgorge four specific pieces of jewelry as ordered.  The Court
     found Kathryn Casperson's claims that she lost her diamond wedding ring and
     earrings and that she had never owned a Cartier watch or diamond tennis
     bracelet not only contradictory of her spouse's testimony, but also
     "unsupported by any credible evidence at all."  See also Litigation Release
     14722 (November 16,
     1995).


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