Release: #4037-97 (CFTC Docket #97-11)

For Release: July 30, 1997

CFTC FILES AND SETTLES ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS
    AGAINST VISIONEERING RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CO., AND ROBERT W. EVERSON
    FOR VIOLATIONS OF THE COMMISSION'S PERFORMANCE RECORD REGULATIONS

Visioneering Agrees to Pay a $50,000 Civil Monetary
    Penalty,

in Addition to Other Sanctions

WASHINGTON -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced
    today that it issued an order instituting administrative proceedings
    against Visioneering Research and Development Company and Robert
    W. Everson, the firm's president, a principal, and stockholder -- both
    located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The CFTC order alleges that from November
    1994 through February 1997, Visioneering distorted the performance record
    reported for two of its managed account programs. Simultaneous with the
    filing of the administrative proceedings, the CFTC accepted offers of
    settlement from both respondents.

Visioneering is registered with the CFTC as a commodity trading advisor
    (CTA), a commodity pool operator, and an introducing broker. Everson is
    registered with the CFTC as an associated person of Visioneering.

The CFTC order, based on the settlement, finds that Visioneering and
    Everson violated numerous provisions of the CFTC's regulations regarding
    the required presentation of a CTA's program and performance record in its
    Disclosure Documents. From November 1994 until February 1997, Visioneering
    filed eight Disclosure Documents with the CFTC. The Commission's order
    finds that four of these Disclosure Documents were filed prior to August
    24, 1995, when the CFTC's Part 4 Regulations were amended, and violated
    various provisions of those former Part 4 Regulations; and the other four
    Disclosure Documents were filed after that date, and violated the current
    Part 4 Regulations.

The CFTC order specifically finds that Visioneering caused the
    performance record of its V-150 Program and V-SP500 Program to reflect
    client investment in months when there was none and thus depicted a
    continuous client performance record of up to 24 months when no such
    performance record existed. The order also finds that Visioneering reported
    performance results of the V-SP500 Program that were in fact performance
    results for the V-150 Program. According to the Commission's order, Everson
    aided and abetted Visioneering in its violation of the regulations and was
    responsible for these violations as a controlling person of
    Visioneering.

The order finds that, in addition to including these distorted
    performance returns in Disclosure Documents sent directly to clients and
    prospective clients, Visioneering sent the distorted returns of these two
    programs to industry trade publications that published the distorted
    performance returns and thereby inadvertently disseminated this inaccurate
    information to their subscribers.

The order finds specifically that Visioneering and Everson distorted the
    performance record of the V-150 and the V-SP500 Programs by:
    (1) inaccurately including proprietary trading results in the client
    composite performance returns;

(2) inaccurately providing capsule performance information that also
    included proprietary trading results;

(3) inaccurately presenting client and proprietary performance results
    for the V-SP500 Program for four months when the program was not even in
    existence by extracting the results from the V-150 Program's proprietary
    account;

(4) inaccurately presenting performance results of the V-150 Program in
    December 1995 as performance results of the V-SP500 Program by transferring
    two open profitable positions from the V-150 Program to the V-SP500
    Program;

(5) omitting to disclose the commission rate charged proprietary
    accounts even though Visioneering was presenting proprietary trading
    results in its Disclosure Document and the commission rate being charged
    proprietary accounts was lower than the commission rate charged to customer
    accounts; and

(6) failing to correct the numerous inaccuracies in the Disclosure
    Documents when Visioneering and Everson knew or should have known of these
    inaccuracies.
    Furthermore, Visioneering's four Disclosure Documents filed with the CFTC
    before August 24, 1995, violated multiple sections of the former Part 4
    Regulations, according to the order.

Visioneering and Everson, without admitting or denying the findings in
    the CFTC's Order, consented to the entry of the CFTC order finding that
    Visioneering and Everson violated CFTC regulations as charged, directing
    Visioneering and Everson to cease and desist from further such violations,
    and directing Visioneering to pay a $50,000 civil monetary penalty.

Under the settlement, Visioneering also agreed to address the specific
    conduct in this matter by agreeing to (1) retain an independent consultant
    for a two-year period to assist it in providing information in each
    Disclosure Document and to industry trade publications that is accurate and
    prepared in accordance with all applicable CFTC and National Future
    Association (NFA) regulations, and (2) to appoint a compliance officer,
    other than Everson, who will review information in the Disclosure Documents
    to ensure that this information is accurate and prepared in accordance with
    all applicable CFTC and NFA regulations.