investor in failed Bermuda-based software company Intex to a stolen computer programs scandal.

The US House Committee on the Judiciary has spent three years looking into allegations that the US Department of Justice stole software from a Washington-based firm called Inslaw in the 1980s.

The Department is alleged to have passed on the software to executives of former Los Angeles-based cable television company Financial News Network, which owns four percent of Intex, to sell overseas for their own gain.

Inslaw's main asset was a highly-developed computer software product called PROMIS, which was designed to keep track of large numbers of legal cases but could also be adapted for other purposes.

Intex, currently in liquidation with net debts of about $1.6 million, was similarly involved with developing sophisticated computer software, to be used for international futures trading.

In a newspaper article two weeks ago, The Los Angeles Business Journal said it had been told that money FNN was alleged to have received from the sale of PROMIS was moved to Bermuda to be invested in the selling of technology overseas.

FNN's former chief executive officer Dr. Earl Brian, who was chairman of Intex between 1984 and 1988, is expected to feature in the committee's findings, according to two journalist sources in the US who have been reporting the controversy.

Inslaw president Mr. William Hamilton has accused the Department of Justice of stealing the PROMIS software in the 1980s and giving copies to Dr. Brian, who was a friend of then-Attorney General Mr. Edwin Meese and President Ronald Reagan.

Mr. Hamilton claims that Dr. Brian, in collusion with the Central Intelligence Agency, then sold $900 million worth of PROMIS software to dozens of foreign governments, including Canada and Israel.

A US bankruptcy court judge ruled in 1988 that the Justice Department had used "trickery and deceit'' to steal PROMIS, although the judgment was later set aside because of a technicality.

According to The Los Angeles Business Journal, affidavits have recently surfaced from such people as an Israeli intelligence officer, a former FNN manager, a former stockbroker, and arms dealers linking Dr. Brian, FNN's former chief financial officer Mr. Steve Bolen and others with the sale of PROMIS abroad.

Some sources have alleged that Dr. Brian was allowed to profit from the sale of PROMIS as a reward for his services in the `October Surprise', which was a supposed scheme by Reagan campaign workers to delay the release of American hostages held in Iran until after the 1980 US presidential elections to help prevent the incumbent Jimmy Carter from winning a second term.

The Inslaw matter is also being investigated by a special prosecutor appointed last year by US Attorney General Mr. William Barr.

Dr. Brian has denied the allegations against him and said that the alleged Inslaw conspiracy never happened. He has also denied having any knowledge of the October Surprise, so-called because the alleged meetings between Reagan campaigners and Iranian officials were said to have taken place in Paris in October, 1980.

Dr. Brian has told The Royal Gazette that he has no current business interests in Bermuda and neither owns nor controls shares in Intex.

But at least three US-based firms he is involved with -- FNN, Infotechnology Inc. and Questech Capital Corp. -- still have a combined significant share holding in Intex.

Dr. Brian was CEO of FNN when it invested in Intex, although he is now just a director and consultant. He is currently a director and minority shareholder of Infotechnology and is CEO of Questech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infotechnology.

Two sources have told The Royal Gazette that Dr. Brian also owns a private Maryland-based company called Jenco, apparently named after his first wife, which owns 12 percent of Intex, although Dr. Brian denies any involvement with the firm.

FNN, Infotechnology, Questech and Jenco own a combined 30 percent of Intex, according to the company's share register.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles last year by FNN shareholders accusing top executives of deliberately running the company into the ground by siphoning millions of dollars into secret offshore bank accounts, particularly in Bermuda, is about to be dropped.

A plan to reorganise FNN, which went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, 1991, has just been approved and will lead to the action being discontinued, except for the case against former FNN executive Mr. Steve Bolen.

In return, the stockholders will receive $750,000 plus 930,000 shares in a new company.

The FBI is investigating alleged financial fraud between FNN and Intex, according to former Canadian stockbroker Mr. John Belton, who is currently embroiled in legal action over a group of companies linked with Dr. Brian.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is also looking into possible money laundering between FNN and Bermuda.

Intex's former chief financial officer Mr. David Thompson, who now works for the Larmag Energy Group in Hamilton, has denied that Intex was involved in any illegal activities.

Edwin Meese -- a former friend of Dr. Earl Brian.