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16 March 2001

News Release

WARNING: MARLBOROUGH ACQUISITIONS INC

New Zealanders are being contacted by a firm calling itself Marlborough Acquisitions Inc. It is claimed the firm is based in Denver in the United States. The approaches are made by a Mr Geoffrey Stevens.

The calls are made to people who have sent money to overseas brokers to buy shares.

In most cases these people have been unable to contact the overseas brokers, mostly from the Philippines or Indonesia, after they have parted with their money.

In the new approach the apparently US-based firm contacts New Zealand investors inviting them to sell their shares. The caller claims to have got their names from the share registers of the companies they invested in.

The caller claims to be acting for an anonymous person who wants to buy shares in the companies concerned and is willing to pay up to 10 times the original purchase price.

An "insurance indemnity bond" or other advance fee is required to be paid by the seller before the shares can be sold.

The bond is normally 10% of the promised price of the shares.

A document in the form of a contract and guarantee for the return of the bond follows by fax or mail.

Marlborough Acquisitions invites people to contact a referee, by the name of "Securities and Registration Compliance". We are informed that this agency assures the New Zealand caller that the deal and the firm are bona fide. Enquiries undertaken by the Commission indicate that this referee is not a regulatory agency. We are also informed that Marlborough Acquisitions Inc is not licensed as a broker-dealer in the United States.

Marlborough Acquisitions Inc appears to be acting in breach of New Zealand law by not complying with the Investment Advisers (Disclosure) Act 1996. More fundamentally however the scheme appears to call for an upfront payment. In the experience of the Commission other schemes with these characteristics may have involved an advance fee fraud.

We repeat our warnings not to send money overseas to people known only to you by telephone.

If you receive calls or documents from such people we recommend that you check them out with an independent adviser in New Zealand such as a stockbroker, lawyer, accountant or financial adviser.

Contact:

Norman Miller
Senior Executive (Operations)
Direct dial: 04 471 7653

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