CFTC Release 4437-00 (00-Civ-00622ST)

For Release August 22, 2000

CFTC CHARGES STEPHEN W. BROCKBANK, CAROL J. LOVE, AND BIRMA LTD., OF UTAH WITH COMMODITY POOL FRAUD AND FAILURE TO REGISTER AS COMMODITY POOL OPERATORS

WASHINGTON - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it filed on August 8, 2000, an injunctive action in the U.S. District Court for Utah against Stephen W. Brockbank of Salt Lake City, Utah, Carol J. Love (also known as Carol J. Zimmerman) of West Jordan, Utah, and BIRMA Ltd., a Utah limited partnership with its main office in Salt Lake City, charging fraud, commingling and registration violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations in connection with the operation of at least one commodity pool. On the same day the complaint was filed, the Honorable Ted Stewart entered an ex parte restraining order that freezes the defendants� assets and preserves books and records.

Specifically, the CFTC complaint alleges that, since at least 1997 and continuing through the present, Brockbank, Love, and BIRMA misappropriated commodity pool investor funds by depositing over $1 million in accounts in the names of Love or BIRMA (BIRMA has only two limited partners: Brockbank and Love), issued false statements, failed to register as commodity pool operators, commingled pool assets with the assets of the pool operators, and failed to establish the pool as a legal entity separate from the pool operators.

Court Hearing on CFTC's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction Set for August 31^st

In its continuing litigation, the CFTC is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, an accounting, restitution to customers, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and civil monetary penalties in amounts of not more than the higher of $110,000 for each violation or triple the monetary gain to the defendants. Judge Stewart has scheduled a hearing on the CFTC�s motion for a preliminary injunction in the case for August 31, 2000 at 11:00 a.m.

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