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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 26, 1994

STATEMENT OF LISA CAPUTO, PRESS SECRETARY TO THE FIRST LADY

The First Lady is today making available additional records of her commodities transactions in 1978-79 as documented by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). When the CME indicated that it would be possible to retrieve records for her Ray E. Friedman Corporation ("Refco") customer account, she instructed her attorney to obtain such records. These records are being released today in order to give as complete a picture as possible of Mrs. Clinton's Refco trading at the CME. Mrs. Clinton had never seen these records before and was unaware of their existence.

Mrs. Clinton received contemporaneous confirmations from Refco, her broker, for the orders she placed. She had no knowledge of or control over how Refco filled her orders at the CME.

The CME records corroborate the Refco records released last month. Mrs. Clinton has been able to locate and has previously made public the contemporaneous confirmation notices mailed to her by Refco at the time of each trade. Two trades, the opening trade and a trade that occurred on June 29, 1979, are more detailed in the CME records. These two trades were reflected summarily on Mrs. Clinton's monthly Refco statements, which have previously been made public. The CME records show that the first trade was an overnight trade, with corresponding market risk.

At the request of Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Leo Melamed of Chicago, Illinois, an internationally recognized expert on the commodities markets, reviewed the CME records. A statement by Mr. Melamed accompanies the additional documents being released today at the request of the First Lady.

Mr. Melamed, recognized as the founder of the concept of financial futures, is the former Chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and former Chairman of its Executive Committee. He was also Chairman of the International Monetary Market. In addition to having served as an Advisor to the Commodities Future Trading Commission, he has lectured and written extensively about the financial futures markets. He was editor of An Anthology: The Merits of Flexible Exchange Rates published in 1988, and wrote Leo Melamed on the Markets published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., in 1993.

Mr. Melamed is currently Chairman and CEO of Sakura Dellsher, Inc., a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM). Mr. Melamed is a lifelong futures trader and is fully familiar with the trading rules and practices of the futures industry. He is on the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Further questions on this matter should be directed to Leo Melamed (312-930-3310) or David Kendall (202-434-5000).

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Attachments: Statement of Leo Melamed

CME Records