4 Parish homes up for grabs
Houses to be sold at Feb. 26 auction; proceeds most likely to go to banks
By Kyle Stock
The Post and Courier
Al Parish (center) walks to federal court in Charleston. Parish, whose accounts were frozen last April and was fired by CSU, pleaded guilty to fraud in October. Legal experts expect the former professor to receive a 15- to 20-year prison term when he is sentenced sometime in the next few weeks.
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Houses to be sold at Feb. 26 auction; proceeds most likely to go to banks
Four of Al Parish's homes will go on the auction block Feb. 26, though any proceeds will likely go to the banks that provided the mortgages, not to the 600 or so defrauded investors who unwittingly bankrolled the former economist's down payments and furnishings.
The properties — a sprawling Summerville estate, a South of Broad townhouse and two seaside residences on Edisto Beach — will be sold to the highest bidder at Roumillat's Estate & Business Auctioneers on Savannah Highway.
But the sales will have to collectively garner $4.5 million before investors in Parish's extended fraud realize any return, said David Dantzler, an attorney for the Atlanta businessman appointed by the court to collect and pay out Parish's estate.
"I'm afraid that what we're doing is basically spending time and money to give these properties an orderly burial," Dantzler said.
Auctioneer Ed Roumillat was confident Thursday that the properties would command sizable sums.
"They'll go up at 11 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, all four are going to belong to someone besides Al Parish," Roumillat said. "We generally get a small crowd, but every one of them is interested and qualified."
As Parish used his prominence to draw deposits from investors, he leveraged his homes to milk money from bankers. With the properties as collateral, the former economics professor convinced blue-chip institutions to provide loans for the homes.
Consequently, investigators have spent months sorting out ownership claims on the real estate.
"We originally thought that we'd certainly get a few hundred thousand dollars out of these properties, but everything's a mess," Dantzler said. "Unraveling this has cost tens of thousands of dollars. And then you get to the end of the rainbow and it's a dry hole. It's just unbelievable."
Parish listed all four properties as collateral for a $2.5 million loan from the National Bank of South Carolina, none of which has been repaid.
He also used a house at Edisto Beach as collateral to secure a loan for an Internet business in which he owned a 10 percent stake. NBSC, which granted the loan, has a $610,000 lien on the property over that agreement.
Bank of America also has a lien on the Edisto Beach house over $465,489 outstanding from another unpaid loan to Parish.
The receiver is more optimistic about drumming up cash from two North Carolina homes that Parish and his wife owned outright. The properties, which together are worth about $1 million, will likely be sold via traditional listings, according to Dantzler.
Proceeds from the Summerville home, the downtown townhouse and an Edisto Beach condominium will be used to pay back taxes, liens and mortgage debt. Any excess would go to investors. Proceeds from the Edisto Beach home will be held in escrow until the various creditors with claims to the cash settle on a payment plan.
Roumillat and any buyer's agents will be paid from a 6 percent premium added to the amount of each winning bid. Potential buyers will need to provide a $10,000 cash or check deposit to bid.
Since 1997, Parish, 50, collected $112.5 million in his "informal pools" of investments from about 600 people and businesses, according to court documents. He allegedly spent or squandered almost $90 million of that cash, while claiming huge, market-beating returns on paper statements he sent to investors.
Parish pleaded guilty to the fraud in early October in a deal that reduced the number of criminal charges from 11 to three. Legal experts expect the former professor to serve a 15- to 20-year prison term when he is sentenced sometime in the next few weeks.
Reach Kyle Stock at 937-5763 or kstock@postandcourier.com. Reach Schuyler Kropf at skropf@postandcourier.com or 937-5551.
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granny2 (anonymous) says...
I don't think 15 to 20 is enought time for him to spend in prison.
I think his wife should spend
some time in prison to
because she was bound to
know something about his phoney business.
January 19, 2008 at 6:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
SuzieQJones (anonymous) says...
The Parish family sure lived well on other peoples' money! Bet he will be sentenced to 15 years and only have to serve 12 3/4 years (85%), after all Andy Savage is his attorney. How could Ms. Yoder (the wife) not have known at least something about what was going on? She used to teach college courses. Didn't she sign their taxes? Surely she didn't think they lived that extravagently on his professor's salary? What a hardship on so many investors, life changing for some.
January 19, 2008 at 7:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tiggerlady (anonymous) says...
i would like to know where he is getting the money to pay for Andy Savage lawyer fees......must be that money they never found!!
January 19, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Lakeuser (anonymous) says...
The funds received from property sales should be disbursed to the not so fortunate. The banks should not receive a dime; as they should have known the risk. The young students that invested their life savings should be the first and the senior citizens are second.
The attorneys will prevail as always, banks have some recourse and will remain stable. If you can't trust your College Professor, who can your trust ?
The Judge needs to understand that these Students were trying to make go in life.
January 19, 2008 at 9:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
algorelost (anonymous) says...
Lakeuser,
Why shouldn't the company that made the loan get paid?
If he defaults on the loan, they become the banks property, not somebody elses. Because someone else made a bad decsion, they get to take some elses property???? If you default on your mortage, can I have the property instead of your mortgage company?
January 19, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
SuzieQJones (anonymous) says...
The banks will get their money, businesses Parish owed money to will get their money, the lawyers will get their money, the receivership will get their money. Gee, think anything will be left for the investors?
January 19, 2008 at 10:53 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
outrage (anonymous) says...
In 15 years, he will retrieve his money from offshore accounts and live happily ever after.
January 19, 2008 at 11:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
forget (anonymous) says...
His wife will have all the $$$ taken care of before he gets out. She'll make sure of that. When he gets out, she'll be gone along with the cash. Not a thing he can do about it because "he doesn't have any $$" as he has said.
January 19, 2008 at 12:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
outrage (anonymous) says...
When all is said and done, I want a full disclosure of what the people handling this tragedy made$$$$$$$$$.
January 19, 2008 at 12:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
candygirl (anonymous) says...
Had the investors did their homework and throughly checked out Parish , they would not be in the position they are in. "They took the gamble and lost"
January 19, 2008 at 4:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Lakeuser (anonymous) says...
Banks do business everyday and should have been more in tune whether they have made a good investment by loaning the funds. Some fall short and some fall way ahead.
Young college students fell way short and should get a return from this ordeal the fastest.
This should have never happened; I blame the Banking Industry.
Just my opinion-
January 19, 2008 at 6:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
PoisenIvy (anonymous) says...
Why is it the banks FAULT that college students were idiots???
January 19, 2008 at 10:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
JohnS (anonymous) says...
The banks owned these properties. Once those funds are paid the reciever and the Gov will get the rest. If the Wando boys got ten years this man deserves to get at least 25 years. He will die in prison more than likley due to his poor health. Maybe CSU will not be so stupid next time and practice what they teach ( make sure you have certified audits performed). The head of the CSU finance dept should have known this and should have been fired.
January 20, 2008 at 11:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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