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

DATE: FRIDAY, December 23, 1994                   TAG: 9412230168
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

VIRGINIA BEACH - Specialty catalog retailer Lillian Vernon Corp. may double the size of its distribution center in Virginia Beach or open a second center in another state.

The New Rochelle, N.Y.-based company said it needs more space to handle increasing sales. Revenue rose about 10.5 percent in the third quarter ended Nov. 26. ``We need more capacity to continue to grow the business,'' company spokesman David Hochberg said.

The 500,000-square-foot center on 54 acres in Virginia Beach opened in 1988. The company's national telemarketing center is next door. The retailer bought a 153,000-square-foot warehouse a half-mile away earlier this year for its growing outlet-store business.

A decision probably will be made next year, company spokesman David Hochberg said. He would not identify the other states the company is considering for a new warehouse. ``It would be in another time zone.'' Construction would begin next year, with the center opening in 1996.

-Associated Press

Bankers Trust fined for derivatives fraud

WASHINGTON - In the first major case involving fraud in the burgeoning derivatives market, federal regulators Thursday fined a division of Bankers Trust New York Corp. $10 million for deceiving Gibson Greetings Inc. in a series of transactions that lost Gibson $23 million.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission levied the fines against BT Securities Corp., a Bankers Trust unit that has already settled a lawsuit filed by Cincinnati-based Gibson and been disciplined by the Federal Reserve.

The market for the newly invented investments that derive their value from other securities such as stocks or bonds has grown so quickly that Congress is considering whether new federal laws are needed to keep up.

But SEC and CFTC officials said the case against Bankers Trust shows the two agencies already have the power to move against the most serious abuses of the market, which is estimated at $35 trillion.

Bankers Trust said the case ``focuses primarily on the actions and statements of one employee, who is no longer with BT Securities.''

- The Washington Post