The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 69

rn UNJ THE RECORD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1989 SECTION RJR Nabisco moving 150 to Parsippany OPENING n. Part of its relocation to N.Y. 1 report in The Record. Office developments in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey actively competed to become RJR headquarters since the company indicated last spring that it was eyeing the tri-state area. Most of the employees involved in the move perform financial functions, Kalis said.

The Parsippany group, numbering between 150 and 200, will relocate to 50,000 square feet of unused office space leased by Nabisco at the Prudential Busi ness Campus, said Kalis. Those employees are expected to be in place by year's end. The New York offices, at 1301 Avenue of the Americas, will not be ready until June 1990, said Kalis. But the Atlanta headquarters will be closed by the end of the year, and relocated employees will work in temporary quarters in New York until the new space is ready. "For the job we have ahead of us, New York is the place to be," said Louis V.

Gerstner chair- said spokesman David Kalis. The company's Nabisco Brands Inc. division is based in East Hanover and has operations in Parsippany-Troy Hills. "In effect, it's going to be a split headquarters, with a substantial number of people in New Jersey," said Kalis. Wednesday's announcement of the relocation confirmed a June Stock prices seesawed Wednesday In choppy trading, closing mixed after a host of conflicting factors rocked the market.

The Dow Jones average, which rose 4.75 Tuesday, climbed 9.12 to close at 2,673.06. A year ago, the Dow was 2,082.33. For Columbia, it's Sony STOCKS DOLLAR PaSoV $1 buys I 345.10 I 140.60 yen I GOLD RATES $367.60 I "-jaOyrT-bondf an ounce I 8.25 yield! $0.90 I 0,01 I Main Business Movies, TV programming, I Electronics, records I Empioyees Headquarterg New VP Vfety0. asm Wednesday clot! $26.50 I $61,625 '52-weekrang fifilI3II jj Quarter ended May 31 Quarter ended June 30 1 Revenue 'earnings Persriare WW" $0.02 buyout is payday for Coke By Skip Wbllenberg The Associated Press Columbia Pictures Entertainment the storied producer of such movies as "Ghostbus-ters" and TV hits like "Who's The Boss," agreed Wednesday to a $3.4 billion cash buyout by Sony Corp. The deal comes 21 months after the huge Japanese manufacturer of electronic equipment bought CBS Records for $2 billion.

It marks the biggest step of Sony's push into the "software" side of the entertainment business, which provides products such as movies and records to complement Sony's "hardware" its stereos, television sets, and videocassette recorders. The agreement extends the recent trend of foreign buyouts of Hollywood studios: Foreign companies have gobbled up MGM-UA Entertainment Co. and 20th Century Fox. Sony said it intended to allow Columbia's American management to retain independence in day-to-day operations, but some top-level changes are expected. Columbia said its president and chief executive, Victor A.

Kaufman, and its chief operating officer, Lew Korman, intend to resign on completion of the buyout. There were published reports that movie producer Peter Guber would replace Kaufman. Guber, who co-produced "Batman," "Rainman," and "Flash-dance," is considered one of Hollywood's top producers. The deal should provide a big payday for the Coca-Cola which stands to collect $1.45 billion in gross proceeds from selling its 49 percent stake in Columbia under Sony's $27-a-share offer. man and chief executive officer of RJR Nabisco.

"We plan to sink roots here. We will have close, ongoing contact with the New York-based segments of the business and investment-banking community." RJR Nabisco is an international consumer-products company that was taken private in a $25 billion leveraged buyout last year. It employs 106,000 people. About 3,500 work in New Jersey, including 800 at a bakery in Fair Lawn. Ex-SEC' enforcer is guilty Admits role in penny stock scam By Tom DiPiazza Record Business Writer A former chief examiner for the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday admitted that he helped orchestrate a penny stock fraud that cost investors $67.2 million while he was president of Paramus-based F.D.

Roberts Securities Inc. Sheldon Kanoff, 53, one of five former Roberts' employees to plead guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Nicholas Poli-tan in Newark, admitted taking part in a scheme that began with the recruitment and manipulation of an army of inexperienced brokers, included payments to organized-crime figures, and ended with efforts to create "escape firms" where the fraud could continue if regulators shut down Roberts. "Penny stock fraud is one of the most pernicious and dangerous attacks on the capital markets in the United States," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoff said at a news conference.

Also pleading guilty to fraud-re- lated charges were Albert Weiss of Ramsey, who is a former Roberts' treasurer and president, and three former Roberts' stockbrokers. To date, 12 people have pleaded guilty in the Roberts investigation and are cooperating with prosecutors. Kanoff and Weiss are the highest-ranking executives of a penny stock firm ever prosecuted in New Jersey. I Penny stocks are low-priced securities that are not listed on any exchange. They are often used to raise capital for new ventures, offering high risk and potentially high reward to investors.

But in the case of Roberts and a growing number of others, unscrupulous brokers illegally inflate the stock price of a legitimate company. And in some cases, they hawk worthless shares in dummy companies with no revenues, no product, and no assets. "Mr. Sheldon Kanoff has the unfortunate distinction of being a former SEC chief examiner who has now himself violated the securities laws," Chertoff said. "He abysmally failed to meet the standards he was responsible for policing a few years earlier." Kanoff served with the SEC's New York regional office from 1970 to 1983, ending as chief examiner for broker-dealer inspection.

Before joining Roberts, he worked for two brokerages, includ-See SCAM Page E-2 By Kathleen Lynn Record Business Writer RJR Nabisco Inc. will relocate its headquarters from Atlanta to New York and Parsippany-Troy Hills in a move that will involve more than 350 employees. Although the New York. office will be the company's official base, about half of headquarters staff will be in Parsippany-Troy Hills, Great Gorge deal iced Int'l Broadcasting axes its purchase of ski, action areas By Mitchell Pacelle Record Business Writer The International Broadcasting Co. the Minneapolis-based owner of the celebrated Harlem Globetrotters and the Ice Capades has walked away from a tentative agreement to purchase Action Park and the Vernon Valley-Great Gorge ski area for $50 million.

"After investigating the properties in more depth, the company came to the conclusion that it didn't fit into their acquisition criteria," said IBC spokesman Joseph Murphy, who declined to be more specific. However, Gene Mulvihill, chairman of Great American Recreation which owns the properties, insisted that the deal didn't collapse because IBC found the facilities lacking. "They opposed a future development that we're working on," explained Mulvihill, who declined to give details on the project. He acknowledged that other issues also may have been factors in IBC's decision. Officials at the Vernon planning board said Wednesday that they did not know why the deal fell through.

Three weeks ago, IBC agreed to pay $30 million in cash, $15 million in IBC stock, and $5 million in notes for the popular Sussex County ski area and amusement park, which features more than 50 rides. The deal would not have affected plans by Princeton-New York Investors Inc. which includes several Great American principals to develop the former Playboy Hotel at Great Gorge into condominiums and erect a mile-long, $3.5 million tramway connecting the complex with the recreation areas. Mulvihill said the company sold 57 condos last week, bringing total units sold to about 1,400. The ski area has suffered financial problems since it was opened by another development group more than 20 years ago.

Great American took over the facility in 1969 and began development at Action Park in 1978. Great American is currently talking to other potential buyers of the amusement park and ski area, which will operate as usual this winter, said Mulvihill 3S" AP istics and, very importantly, has the ability to take the company to its next important step," Keough said. Analysts said Columbia's huge library of more than 2,700 films and more than 23,000 TV episodes should be valuable to Sony. In the Columbia library are such films such as "On the Waterfront," "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Bridge Over the River Kwai," "Kramer vs. Kramer," and "Tootsie." Its TV programs include "Designing Women" and "Married With Children" as well as syndicated programs such as "The Jeffersons" and "Barney Miller." Its TV library includes the series "Father Knows Best" and "Route 66." Columbia also operates 820 movie screens in 220 locations through its Loews Theatre Management Corp.

ic versions of popular epilepsy drugs. In a statement Wednesday, subcommittee Chairman John Din-gell, D-Mich, said the information "leaves us with no confidence that the Food and Drug Administration has the ability, or that a significant portion of the generic-drug industry has the integrity, to assure that the manufacture of extremely sensitive medications is consistent with the maximization of the public health." Dingell wrote to FDA Commissioner Frank Young on Wednes-See GENERIC Page E-2 Braniff Inc. bankruptcy, The Associated Press Braniff Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection and laid off 2,700 employees early todays day after canceling flights through its major Kansas City hub and its Orlando home base for several hours, a spokesman said. Braniff sought protection from creditors to allow it to reorganize under chapter 11 of the VS.

bankruptcy code in the Florida city, said Don McGuire, the airline's vice president for corporate communications. "We expect to operate four flight segments, that's non-stop services, between two cities today and we want to raise that to more than 40 by Monday," Probe of epilepsy drugs widens CiBBurei report Today the Commerce Department will report on its index of leading economic indicators for August. Sicarltf analysts msst The New York Society of Security Analysts is sponsoring a talk on "Appropriate Goals for Economic Competlveness," today at noon, 71 Broadway, Manhattan. monetary Fund The annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund concludes today In Washington. 1 HcKescav bund Five Soviet managers received their bachelor of hamburgerology degrees from McDonald's Hamburger University last week and will soon head home to Moscow to open what could be the world's busiest McDonald's.

"It Is exciting to know we are part of history," said Alexander Egorov, 38, deputy general director of Moscow McDonald's. "We want to bring this knowledge with us to make Moscow McDonald's as successful and popular as other McDonald's restaurants around the world," he added, speaking in Russian through an Interpreter. Egorov and four Soviet colleagues were among 200 graduates who completed the 10-day training session at Hamburger U. in Oak Brook, III. McDonald's officials said the first Moscow McDonald's Is expected to be the highest volume McDonald's In the world, serving 10,000 to 15,000 customers a day.

"The raw products that are going to be used will be local, from the Soviet Union," said Mikhail Shelesnov, another of the Soviet grads. "We are committed to maintaining the same level of standards McDonald's Is famous for around the world." I Egorov said the Moscow McDonald's will have the same menu as Its American counterparts. How does a customer Order a Big Mac In Russian? "Big Mad" he exclaimed. "Big Mac Is Big Mac It Is an International word." United Press International On the Job Wan Street Report NYSE AM EX NASDAQ National Mutual Funds Other NJ. Stocks-Foreign Exchange- E-3 E-4 E-5 E-5 E-6 E-6 E-4 E-4 Coca-Cola declined to comment on what it intends to do with the cash, but analysts speculated that it would reinvest in its soft-drink operations and possibly repurchase some of its stock.

In trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Columbia rose 25 cents a share and closed at $26.50, while Coca-Cola rose 50 cents a share to Michael Schulhof, vice chairman of Sony Corp. of America, said he had had informal discissions with Columbia executives for about a year but that the talks got serious only in the past week. Schulhof said Sony decided on a proposal during the weekend and presented it Monday. Columbia Chairman Donald R. Keough, who also is president of Coca-Cola, said Sony is "an ideal buyer." "It has all the right character? in generic copies firm, negotiated with Food and Drug Administration officials for six weeks over whether to issue a recall of its version of the anti-convulsion drug carbamazepine, even as consumer complaints about the drug's lack of efficacy continued to come in.

In addition, information obtained during the congressional investigations and internal FDA reports obtained by The Washington Post suggest that there may have been safety problems with at least five other gener I wish I could turn back the clock. Paid A. BUzenut 13 Ttflzerifln 4 vftars in prison, fine 'No confidence' By Malcolm Gladwell Washington Post News Service Congressional investigators involved in the generic-drug probe said Wednesday that the safety and manufacturing problems plaguing generic epilepsy medication may be more serious and widespread than reported. According to a document released Wednesday by the House Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Pharmaceutical Basics a Chicago-based generic-drug Judge Robert J. Ward said at the sentencing in federal court in Manhattan.

"In short, he lies." Ward also sentenced Bilzerian to two years of probation and 250 hours of community service. He was convicted of engaging in a pattern of lawbreaking in three failed takeovers and a stock deal in 1985 and 1986 that allegedly netted him more than $12 million. The charges involved raids on apparel maker Cluett, Peabody Co, building supplies maker H.H. Robertson and the Ham-mermill Paper Co. The 1985-86 stock deal involved trading in stock of Armco Inc.

Bilzerian, who resigned as Singer chairman in June, still faces a civil action filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which See BILZERIAN Page E-4 files for cuts flights McGuire said. "Well gradually expand the service." The flights will be between Kansas City and Orlando and Kansas City and Dallas, the company said. The employee layoffs were to begin today, it said. On Wednesday, rumors that Braniff planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time pushed the company's stock down $1.75 in over-the-counter trading to $3,125 a share. The airline issued a terse statement late in the day saying it began canceling "selected flights" at 2:45 p.m.

EDT and some additional flights would be scrubbed later. By Stefan Fatsis The Associated Press Paul A. Bilzerian, the corporate raider convicted of engineering a series of illegal stock deals, was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison and fined $1.5 million in the stiffest sentence of the government's three-year crack down on Wall Street fraud. Bilzerian, a high school dropout and Vietnam veteran who capped a meteoric business career with the $1.06 billion takeover of the Singer Co, was convicted June 9 on nine counts of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit tax fraud, and making false statements to the government. "The hire of money has caused him an intelligent young man to lose what I perceive to be proper US.

District.