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Lawsuit settled against former Charleston Southern economist |
The federal agency that regulates commodity trading said Monday that it
obtained a judgment against former Charleston Southern University economist
Al Parish.The order entered by U.S. District Court Judge David Norton last week
settled a lawsuit alleging that Parish and his Parish Economics LLC 'lied to
customers and misappropriated millions of dollars in customer funds'
between 1986 and March 2007, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a statement.The commission estimated that Parish received about $40 million to invest in
a commodity futures pool."Parish and Parish Economics misrepresented to pool participants that funds
would be invested in commodity futures when, in reality, Parish
misappropriated the vast majority of funds for his personal use," the agency
said. "Parish and Parish Economics also provided false futures account
statements to pool participants and failed to provide required pool
disclosure documents."The commission sued Parish in April 2007. According to the Feb. 2 order,
Parish will be subject to a restitution obligation in excess of $40 million.
Also, the order permanently bars Parish and his firm from violating specific
provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and from engaging in any
commodity-related activities.
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