GRAND JURY INDICTS NIGERIANS
                              IN WIRE FRAUD SCHEME


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced today that a
federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, returned a nine-count
indictment charging three Nigerian citizens with wire fraud.
     The indictment alleges that the defendants defrauded EER Systems Inc.,
an aerospace contractor based in Vienna, Virginia, and its chief executive
officer, Dr. Jai N. Gupta, of $4.4 million in connection with a scheme in
which he was offered a share of $28.5 million allegedly obtained by fraud
from the government of Nigeria.
     Named as defendants were Johnny Okolie, Fred Kachi and Henry
Achiekwelu, all Nigerian citizens.  The Department announced it will begin
extradition proceedings immediately.
     According to the indictment, EER and Gupta received and responded to a
letter mailed from Nigeria in September 1992 by the defendants offering to
deposit $28.5 million in funds obtained by over-invoicing the government of
Nigeria through the use of false invoices provided by EER Systems.  For the
use of EER's bank account, the defendants offered to give Gupta and EER 15
percent of the funds on deposit, as well as a fee for managing the balance
of the money.  Following a number of requests, Gupta transferred almost
$4.4 million -- to cover "taxes" and other fees -- to accounts designated
by the defendants.  Neither EER nor Gupta ever received any of the promised
funds in return.
     The three defendants each face a maximum fine of $250,000 and five
years in prison.
     The case was investigated by the fraud section of the Criminal
Division of the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Customs Service and the
U.S. Postal Inspection Service.