Investors talk before the sentencing

"I'm here to see Humpty Dumpty take a fall," Virginia Larisey exclaimed as she walked toward the courthouse.

Larisey, 85, lost $300,000 she invested with Parish, which has left her struggling financially. The loss forced her to move from a comfortable housing complex to a small, one-bedroom apartment where she must fend for herself.

"He has changed my life for the worse," she said.

Larisey said she hasn’t recovered any of the money she invested and will consider herself fortunate if she gets 10 cents on the dollar in the end.

She met Parish through her husband several years back and thought he was a nice, intelligent, trustworthy man. She didn’t think twice about entrusting him with her money. Her two daughters lost $30,000 they invested with Parish as well.

Her only solace is that she got the chance to tell Parish off to his face when she bumped into by chance recently.

"I said 'You are just a low skunk and a thief,' " she said.

His wife told her Parish had amnesia and didn't know what she was talking about. Larisey didn’t buy that.

"I told her 'No ma'am, he knows who he's talking to.' "

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The Rev. Marilyn Powell invested $48,000 with Parish on a tip from her broker. She was thrilled with the large returns he promised. She figured the extra cash would allow her to travel the world, visiting her son in Italy and a daughter who lives in Mexico.

"I was just going to have a ball," she said.

In the end, the Charleston resident lost it all. She needs roughly $12,000 more in income per year to maintain her standard of living. By her math, that means Parish has robbed her of four years of her life, she said.

"I just really makes me sick, and I know some people lost a lot more money that I did," she said. "I want him to get the maximum for what he did."

-- Glenn Smith

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