
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 5, 1990                   TAG: 9006050308
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

MYSTERY PILOT CHARGED WITH SECURITIES FRAUD

A lawyer whose private plane crashed into the Atlantic last year with him wounded at the controls was charged Monday with 455 counts of securities fraud and related charges.

A Nash County grand jury returned indictments with a total of 2,695 counts against Thomas Root, Sonrise Management Services, Telemedia Inc. and three other men identified as co-owners of the two businesses.

Root, a Washington-area lawyer who has been indicted on federal charges involving his work for Sonrise, drew national attention in 1989 after he reported blacking out in the cockpit of his single-engine plane.

He was followed by military planes until he crashed in Bahamian waters off Florida.

- Associated Press

by CNB