OTHER NEWS - Feb. 22, 1996

SEC Issues Warning on ‘Offshore’ Stock Sales: The Securities and Exchange Commission said it will go after companies or people who illegally invoke a “safe harbor” provision to evade the registration of securities sold to foreign buyers. The warning was raised in settling an administrative case involving Candie’s Inc., a Purchase, N.Y.-based clothing company, and Response USA Inc., a Lawrenceville, N.J.-based maker of personal emergency response products. Regulators said the respondents sold $3.7 million in unregistered securities to foreign buyers when they should have known that SEC Regulation S, which offers a so-called safe harbor for the sale of securities outside the U.S., cannot be used as a way to skip the agency’s registration rules. The respondents agreed to a “cease and desist” order without admitting or denying wrongdoing.