DALLAS, Feb. 13, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Basic Capital Management, Inc. ("BCM") announced today that Gene E. Phillips and A. Cal Rossi, Jr. have been acquitted of all charges in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Messrs. Phillips and Rossi had been indicted in June 2000 in connection with an alleged scheme to bribe union officials in connection with a proposed sale of shares of preferred stock of a company advised by BCM.
Mr. Phillips is a real estate investor whose children's trust owns BCM. Mr. Rossi was an executive of BCM and managed BCM's capital markets department.
Mr. Phillips' attorney, Abbe Lowell, stated: "We are pleased that this matter has finally been resolved. This was a very long and difficult trial which lasted over three months. While both men have consistently maintained that they did not commit any of the acts they were charged with, this verdict finally and completely clears these gentlemen of all allegations of any wrongdoing and supports our position that they never should have been charged."
Basic Capital Management, Inc. is a Dallas-based real estate advisory company to three publicly traded real estate entities: American Realty Investors, Inc. (NYSE:ARL), Income Opportunity Realty Investors, Inc. (AMEX:IOT) and Transcontinental Realty Investors, Inc. (NYSE:TCI). For more information on the company and its affiliates, go to the web site at www.bcm-inc.com.