UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

             Litigation Release  15821 / July 28, 1998

             SEC v. Francis X. Wazeter, III, John W. Howell, Maria M.
             Wenner and Stanley M. Blanshei, (N.D. CALIFORNIA, CIVIL
             ACTION NO. C-97-3566-CW, FILED SEPTEMBER 30, 1997)

             The Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) today
             announced that on July 22, 1998, the Honorable Claudia
             Wilken, United States District Judge for the Northern
             District of California, Oakland Division, in the case of
             S.E.C. v. Francis X. Wazeter, III, et. al., (C-97-3566-CW),
             entered final judgments of permanent injunction and other
             equitable relief against John W. Howell (Howell) of Sonoma,
             California, Maria M. Wenner (Wenner) of San Francisco,
             California, and Stanley M. Blanshei (Blanshei) of Alamo,
             California, for their respective roles in a multimillion
             dollar scheme involving the fraudulent misstatement of the
             financial statements and accounts of International Research
             and Development Corp. (IRDC), a Mattawan, Michigan company.
             During the relevant period, IRDC's common stock was traded
             on NASDAQ, and it filed periodic reports with the
             Commission.

             The Complaint in S.E.C. v. Francis X. Wazeter, III, et. al.
             alleged that from at least June 1993 through at least
             September 1994, Howell, the general manager of Carme, Inc.
             (Carme), a Novato, California company and former subsidiary
             of IRDC, Wenner, the chief financial officer of Carme, and
             Blanshei, the sales manager of Carme, engaged in a scheme to
             defraud investors in IRDC common stock by booking millions
             of dollars in fictitious sales to various customers of
             Carme, thereby materially overstating Carme's accounts
             receivable, sales and earnings.  In addition, their scheme
             resulted in the inclusion of these figures in IRDC's
             consolidated financial statements causing IRDC to materially
             overstate its accounts receivable and revenue by a total of
             more than $3.5 million and its net earnings and earnings per
             share by 50% to 1800% in IRDC's Forms 10-Q dated June 30,
             1993, September 30, 1993, March 31, 1994, June 30, 1994 and
             September 30, 1994 and its Form 10-K for the year ending
             December 31, 1993, filed with the Commission.  According to
             the Complaint, IRDC's inflated revenue and earnings figures
             were also included in press releases issued to the public,
             resulting in a fraud on the market for IRDC common stock.
             The Complaint also alleged that Howell, Wenner and Blanshei
             attempted to prevent detection of their scheme by, among
             other things, creating false documents and lying to IRDC's
             independent auditor.

             Howell, Wenner and Blanshei admitted the allegations of the
             Commission's complaint and, pursuant to their consent, were
             permanently enjoined from future violations of Sections
             10(b) and 13(b)(5) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
             and Rules 10b-5 and 13b2-1 promulgated thereunder.  The
             court also ordered Wenner and Blanshei to pay civil
             penalties in the amount of $50,000 and $25,000,
             respectively.  The court did not order civil penalties
             against Howell based on his demonstrated inability to pay.