Judge Will Rule Whether to Free Sheppard
A judge will decide whether Ronald J. Sheppard, the former chief executive of HomeGold Financial, can leave prison while he appeals his conviction for three counts of securities fraud. Sheppard was sentenced earlier this month to 20 years in jail and has been retained at Kirkland Reception and Evaluation Center in Columbia since. Sheppard's appeal could take years to get through court. Investors who lost money due to Sheppard's subprime mortgage business collapse asked the judge not to set Sheppard free.
The Attorney General said that Sheppard lied about the financial health of HomeGold to the board members of its Carolina Investors subsidiary. Many of those who were putting money into Carolina Investors were saving for retirement and did not realize that Carolina Investors merely was a fund raising arm for Home Gold. More than 8,000 investors lost more than $277 million when both HomeGold and Carolina Investors filed for bankruptcy in the spring of 2003.
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