Securities: Expert Charged With Securities Fraud

Al Parish, who served as a source of advice for many business leaders in South Carolina, was charged with securities fraud related to his company. Parish, 49, is an economics professor at Charleston Southern University and is well known in the area for his extravagant tastes, said that he had amnesia and checked himself into a Charleston hospital after federal investigators questioned him about $134 million that was missing from the five investment pools that he managed.

Business guru faces fraud claim

The five charges of fraud that were filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission shocked local leaders who use Parish's predictions to help them make business decisions and to determine the health of the economy. The SEC says that Parish told 300 investors that funds were trading at a profit when the funds were not trading profitably at all. Gary Loftus, the director of Coastal Carolina University's Center for Economic and Community Development, said of Parish: "We knew he was flashy and flamboyant, but nobody every thought about anything like this."