THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996                 TAG: 9603290608
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG BUSINESS NEWS 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   32 lines

$200 MILLION RECOVERED IN BANK SCAM $123.5 MILLION STILL OUT

Federal prosecutors recovered from a computer firm more than half the $323.5 million that Signet Banking Corp. and other banks were duped into lending to a fraudulent tobacco research project, a lawyer for the firm said.

Judd Burstein, attorney for Centralized Computer Services Inc. in New York, said the company told investigators of $200 million in bank and brokerage accounts that were proceeds from the fraud. The U.S. Attorney in Alexandria, Virginia, yesterday received a federal judge's approval to freeze the accounts, which are controlled by the computer company.

Most of the remaining $123.5 million is gone, Burstein said. Edward Reiners, 51, who is accused of masterminding the fraud, spent or squandered the money on investment losses generated for tax purposes, the attorney said.

Centralized Computer officials are not part of the fraud, though they inadvertently participated in Reiners' scheme, Burstein said. Company officials expected the $200 million would be used to buy computers for a Philip Morris Cos. research project, he said.

KEYWORDS: BANK FRAUD by CNB