wfn.org | NCC Recovers Another $405,000

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227

129NCC12/21/99
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC RECOVERS ANOTHER $405,000 OF $8 MILLION "TROUBLED INVESTMENT"
Final Settlement Brings Total Recovered to $5,405,000 -- Nearly 70 
Percent

 December 21, 1999, NEW YORK CITY - With nearly 70 percent of 
the funds now recovered, the National Council of Churches has agreed 
to forego any further legal action in pursuit of the $8 million it 
had invested in what proved to be fraudulent securities issued in 
the name of the Prague-based Banka Bohemia.  

Total recovery stands at $5,405,000 with the receipt this 
month of an additional $405,000 from various parties who have now 
reached a settlement with the NCC."

The NCC's legal counsel in the matter, Whitman Breed Abbott & 
Morgan, advised the NCC of the final settlement in a letter dated 
Dec. 10, 1999.  This final settlement marks the conclusion of a 
nearly six-year, aggressive effort that included legal proceedings 
in England and the United States, an NCC delegation's visit to the 
Czech Republic and appeals to the Czech National Bank and the U.S. 
Securities and Exchange Commission.

"We've been fortunate to recover as much as we did," commented 
the Rev. Dr. Joan B. Campbell, NCC General Secretary, who noted that 
other investors have lost everything in similar schemes.  "I'm 
grateful this has been resolved.  I feel we've been extremely well 
represented and have turned every stone we could to have returned to 
us the maximum amount of funds."

The NCC monies involved in the "prime bank guarantees" fraud 
were a substantial portion of the pooled resources set aside by the 
Council's various departments to cover future health insurance 
premiums for retirees and their dependents.  "We've been pleased 
this has never disrupted the service to our retirees," Dr. Campbell 
said.  "We have honored without interruption our commitment to them 
to cover their health care."

Some $4 million of the NCC funds were traced to Banka Bohemia 
and $1 million to an account in a bank on the island of Jersey off 
the coast of Great Britain.  The NCC recovered those monies in March 
1995.  

Banka Bohemia, once the seventh largest in the Czech Republic, 
collapsed in 1994 after trying to sell $1.2 billion in fake 
securities abroad and was put into receivership by the Czech 
National Bank, according to a Bloomberg News Service dispatch 
(9/4/96).  The SEC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for 
the District of Columbia against two U.S. firms and two individuals 
for allegedly participating in the fraud that caused the NCC's loss 
(Bloomberg, 8/2/95).

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