FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

About the refco GROUP, the world largest non-banking futures, commodities and securities broker in the regulated markets.

Joint and several lawsuit against refco OVERSEAS LIMITED, the English subsidiary of the refco GROUP, and the French subsidiary refco SECURITIES s.a., in Paris, France, regarding a debt of 29,470,987 euros.

23 September 2003 - Paris, France. Upon the decision  of the Judge sitting at the Commercial Court of Paris, France, at the request of the parisian Lawyer Maître Jean-Marc DESCOUBES, a Court Order for EUR 29,470,987 was imposed against the assets of refco SECURITIES s.a. on 12 September.

This Court surety has been entered as part of the joint and several lawsuit against refco Overseas Limited, the English subsidiary of the refco Group, and refco Securities s.a., which began in May 2003, for the unpaid debts owed to a business contributor, Gérard Sillam.

The refco Group is the world largest non-banking futures and securities broker in the regulated markets. Concerning the U.S. markets, it was classified 7^th by Futures Magazine this year.

About:             France-USA;

Franco-American tensions after the Crédit Lyonnais / Executive Life scandal ;

EUR 29,470,987 actual debt by French Court order and more than USD 450,000,000 possible debt in the future ;

REFCO Overseas Limited & REFCO Securities S.A., REFCO GLOBAL HOLDINGS Inc.

& REFCO GROUP LIMITED;

Ernst & Young France ;

Other companies of these Groups in the world;

Phillip R. Bennett, President & Chief Executive Officer, REFCO Group Ltd.

Copies to:  Banque de France (CECEI & Commission Bancaire) / Federal Reserve / SEC / CFTC / NFA / SFA / FSA / Ernst & Young France / Phillip R. Bennett, President & Chief Executive Officer, REFCO Group Ltd.

Issued by:       Gérard Sillam

Tel: 0666012020 / +33 6 66 01 20 20

E-mail: gerard_sillam@yahoo.com

EUR 29,470,987 owed on the business assets of the stock exchange-listed company, refco Securities s.a., by French Court order and legal proceedings before the American Courts for over USD 450 millions.

Refco Group in France: the debt of 29,470,987 euros did not appear in the financial statements published by refco Securities s.a. and certified by Ernst & Young France.

While Franco-American relations have been rather strained since the start of the Crédit Lyonnais’ current troubles, not to mention those yet to come - it appears that the French state itself will have to pay most of the current transaction costs - in the executive life scandal, the main assets of the American finance multinational, refco, have been in the hands of the French Courts since 12 September 2003, as part of legal proceedings in Paris regarding a debt of 29,470,987 euros.

A Court order in the form of a security to guarantee a debt in principal, provisionally evaluated by the Court at 29,470,987 euros, was imposed by the Judge sitting at the Commercial Court of Paris on the assets of refco Securities s.a., a 100%-held subsidiary of the American refco Group, at the office of the Clerk of the Commercial Court of Paris.

From the documents drawn up by the Paris Commercial Court, refco Securities s.a.’s debt thus appears to have officially increased by this amount since 12 September 2003, although refco’s published financial statements currently make no mention of it.

Market makers, regulatory authorities and the public, both in France and abroad, are of course morally and legaly entitled to be told about this situation immediately.

The refco group’s assets in France are in the hands of the Courts, at the petition of a creditor, regarding undertakings made by natural and legal persons and entities that are ex-officio members of the refco Group. The creditor has instituted proceedings jointly and severally against the company refco Overseas Limited, governed by English law, and against the French stock market listed company, refco Securities s.a., for payment of the sum of 29,470,987 euros provisionally set on 31 march 2003, regarding a debt payable by successive enforcements, which increases each month and none of which has been paid to date.

These Court proceedings were specially authorized at short notice by a Court decision of the Judge sitting at the Commercial Court of Paris on 25 April 2003, at the request of the parisian Lawyer Jean-Marc DESCOUBES.

The two writs were issued by the bailiffs, more than 4 months ago in Paris and more than 3 months ago in London.

Today, all the supervisory authorities - the Banque de France (CECEI and the Banking Commission), the “Securities and Futures Authority” (SFA) in London and the “Federal Reserve” (FED), the “Securities and Exchange Commission” (SEC), the “National Futures Association” (NFA) and the “Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC.)” in the United States – have all been notified, as has Mr. Phillip R. Bennett, President & Chief Executive Officer of refco Group Ltd.

The debtor’s auditor, Ernst & Young France, which did not enter this debt in the financial statements of the companies in the refco Group, nor request the slightest provision for risk, despite a written warning sent by the creditor to that effect at the end of the year 2000 in France, has also been notified.

The creditor furthermore decided to refer the matter to the American Courts, taking legal proceedings against the parties, in particular in order to redress the moral injury that he has suffered as a result of the “corporate misconduct” of several American, English and French natural and legal persons and entities that were able to act in an organized and coordinated manner to cause deliberate harm to the creditor (“group of corporates misconduct”) as regards instructions given to that effect from American territory by natural and legal persons or entities on that territory.

The sums owed, to be requested by the creditor in the future before the American courts, will amount to more than four hundred and fifty million us dollars – USD 450,000,000 – for the deliberate acts to which it was subjected over a long period of time; these acts, which were planned, organized and ordered from the U.s.a. and performed against its person over several years, may well be punished by so-called “punitive damages”.

The American group refco, is the non-banking world leader in financial intermediation in most of the organized international financial markets, in world raw materials markets and foreign exchange markets, especially the whole range of futures products in these markets.

As such it is the depository of public funds in many countries. It has numerous top-ranking institutional clients and private clients.

The refco Group is one of the major private players in global finance in the U.s.a. and throughout the world. That is why the creditor trusted refco at the time when the latter underwrote its commitments and provided its services.

A press conference will shortly take place in the presence of its lawyers and bailiffs on the events and their consequences.

To view the official state of the debts incurred by refco Securities s.a., and thus to ascertain the actual situation directly, please go to the (paying) website of the clerk’s office at the Paris commercial court at the following internet address, specifying the register of commerce number of refco Securities s.a., 328 885 942:

http://www.infogreffe.fr/infogreffe/index.jsp

Contacts for information:

1/ Maître Jean-Marc Descoubes

Avocat au barreau de paris

3, rue du boccador  75008 paris

Tel : 01 44 43 00 60                              Fax : 01 47 23 99 76

+331 44 43 00 60                   +331 47 23 99 76

E-mail : jmdescoubes@hotmail.com

2/ Maître Olivier Bargain

Huissier de Justice Audiencier près

Le Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris

9, boulevard Saint-Michel 

75005 Paris

Tel : 01 46 33 19 00

+331 46 33 19 00

Subject to proper reserves.