Release: 4187-98 (CFTC Docket #94-14)

For Release: September 4, 1998

CFTC ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE (ALJ) FINDS THAT
JERRY W. SLUSSER, HANS J. BRINKS, AND TWO INDIANA CORPORATIONS VIOLATED THE
ANTI-FRAUD PROVISIONS OF FEDERAL COMMODITY LAW

ALJ Also Finds Registration Violations and
Issues Cease and Desist Orders, Imposes Permanent Trading Bans, Revokes
Registrations, and Imposes Civil Monetary Penalties Totalling
$10,770,000

WASHINGTON -- In an Initial Decision issued on
August 24, 1998, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Administrative Law Judge
(ALJ) George H. Painter found that, during 1989, Jerry W. Slusser,
formerly of Indianapolis, Indiana, and currently of Las Vegas, Nevada, and First Republic Financial Corporation (FRFC) (formerly known as Vancorp
Financial Services) of Indianapolis, Indiana, misappropriated nearly $6
million of customer funds, made material misrepresentations and omissions of
facts to customers, and failed to register with the Commission and make
required disclosures in their operation of two commodity pools.

The ALJ found Slusser, the owner and chairman of
the board of FRFC and a registered associated person, liable for FRFC's
violations as a controlling person of the firm and that another of
Slusser's corporations, First Republic Trading Corporation (FRTC), a registered introducing broker also of Indianapolis, aided and
abetted FRFC's and Slusser's fraud.

The ALJ also found that FRFC illegally acted as a
commodity pool operator (CPO) without being registered with the CFTC, that
Slusser illegally acted as an associated person of a CPO without registration,
and that FRFC violated CFTC regulations governing the operation of commodity
pools and required disclosures to pool participants.

ALJ Orders $10 Million Fine Against Slusser,
FRFR, and FRTC

The ALJ ordered Slusser, FRFC, and FRTC to cease
and desist from further violations, permanently banned them from trading
commodity futures, revoked the registrations of First Republic Trading and
Slusser, and ordered Slusser, FRFC, and FRTC --jointly and severally -- to pay
a $10 million civil monetary penalty, the largest ever assessed in a litigated
Commission administrative proceeding.

ALJ Orders Hans Brinks to Pay a $770,000 Civil
Monetary Penalty

The ALJ also held Hans J. Brinks, a German
citizen of Berlin, Germany, who formerly resided in Indianapolis and has never
been registered with the CFTC and who was also named as a respondent in the
proceeding, in default for failure to appear at the hearing. The ALJ found that
Brinks, as the president and chief operating officer of FRFC, had both
committed fraud directly and aided and abetted Slusser's and FRFC's
fraud. The ALJ ordered that Brinks cease and desist from further violations,
permanently banned him from the industry, and ordered him to pay a $770,000
civil monetary penalty.

In assessing sanctions, ALJ Painter found that
respondents "engaged in consistent and blatant violations of some of the
most significant provisions of the law governing commodity futures
transactions," that the "respondents pilfered millions of dollars
from customers, using the commodities markets to carry out their scheme,"
and that their wrongdoing was "purposeful, and their scheme was
multi-faceted and complex."

The Commission's six-count administrative
complaint in Docket No. 94-14 was filed on May 26, 1994, and a hearing was held
on October 27, 1997 (see CFTC News Release #3766-94, May 27, 1994).