Austria Trust Company, Ltd., Bobby Lee Rodgers, and Glen Moyer, and City (U.K.), Ltd.

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 15728 / May 1, 1998

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. AUSTRIA TRUST COMPANY, LTD., BOBBY LEE RODGERS, and GLEN MOYER, and CITY (U.K.), LTD. (Relief Defendant) Civil Action No. 98-2370-GV (W.D. Tenn.)

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that a Complaint For Injunctive And Other Relief was filed by the Commission on April 23, 1998, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee against defendants Austria Trust Company, Ltd. ("Austria Trust"), Bobby Lee Rodgers ("Rodgers"), and Glen Moyer ("Moyer"), and City (U.K.), Ltd. ("City U.K."), as relief defendant. Austria Trust was formed in Belize by Rodgers and Moyer, who jointly own and operate the company from offices in Memphis, Tennessee. City U.K. is an entity in the United Kingdom which purports to specialize in the recovery of investments in "bank instruments" which fail to produce promised returns to investors.

The complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Austria Trust, Rodgers and Moyer from further violations of Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission also seeks 1) disgorgement of all ill-gotten profits received by the defendants and prejudgment interest thereon; 2) the imposition of civil penalties against Austria Trust, Rodgers and Moyer; 3) an accounting of all funds received from the scheme by Austria Trust, Rodgers, Moyer and City U.K.; and 4) an order imposing a constructive trust over and requiring the repatriation and disgorgement of funds held by City U.K..

The Commission's complaint alleges that, between 1994 and the present time, Austria Trust, Rodgers and Moyer violated the antifraud provisions of the securities laws by offering and selling securities in the form of investment contracts in connection with a prime bank scheme. The investment contracts are purported to be secured by instruments denoted as "Divisionary Certificates of Bank Guarantee," alleged to be issued by one of the top 25 European banks. In fact, neither the trading programs nor the divisionary certificates exist. In one program sold by the defendants in the fall of 1996, at least 19 individuals invested a total of $2,700,000 with Austria Trust. The funds were sent to Europe but they have not been invested as represented by Austria Trust. Instead, $2,500,000 of the funds have purportedly been recovered or are being held by City U.K..