The enigmatic case of fund manager Albert Parish

FWR Staff

18 April 2007

Accused of swindling clients, former professor now can't remember a thing. Albert Parish, a former economics professor at Charleston Southern University in Charleston, S.C, has been charged with lying to federal investigators in an investment fraud case, where at least $134 million went missing from funds he was managing.

The U.S. Attorney's office in South Carolina says that Parish made false statements and submitted false documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission . He is being held without bail.

Memory hole

Family members say he is suffering from amnesia.

The SEC says Parish provided false statements to 300 investors, assuring them that the five "informal" fund pools he managed were trading at a profit. Known for his flamboyance and flashy lifestyle -- he wears hot-pink, lime-green and leopard-print suits -- Parish also had investment control over a $10-million Charleston Southern University scholarship fund.

Parish's investment minimums ranged between $5,000 and $50,000, depending on the fund.

Charleston Southern University, which fired Parish last week, is also being sued by five of Parish private investors. They hold that since Parish wasn't registered with the SEC to buy and sell securities, the university was responsible for his actions.

Meanwhile the FBI is looking high and low for the missing money. It seems that assets in those of Parish's accounts they can find don't come to much more than a few hundred thousand.

Investigators are said to be interested in tracing Parish's footsteps in a January 2007 trip to the British Virgin Islands. He subsequently wrote an article, published in the Economist, extolling the attractions to offshore entrepreneurs -- "lured by favorable tax laws" -- of registering their companies in the B.V.I.

If convicted Parish could spend five years in prison and have to pay a fine of $250,000. -FWR