Former economist Al Parish, who pleaded guilty in October to defrauding hundreds of investors out of up to $80 million, is slated to be sentenced at 10 a.m. June 26 at the federal courthouse in Charleston.

Parish, a former professor at Charleston Southern University, faces a potential sentence of 30 years to life.

The scheduling of Parish’s sentencing hearing on the federal charges was announced late last month shortly after the flamboyant “economic forecaster” appeared at the county court complex in downtown Charleston to answer a state charge of mail and wire fraud.

As he had in the federal case, Parish pleaded guilty to defrauding about 470 investors of between $50 million and $80 million.

With his plea, Parish now faces a sentence of up to 10 years on the state charges. He will serve the sentence concurrently with his federal penalties, said his attorney Andy Savage.

However, Savage said he is working to reduce Parish’s prison sentence.

Parish pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to three federal charges of securities fraud related to an investment offering that over some 10 years raised $112.5 million from 600 to 650 investors, including his former employer, Charleston Southern University.

Savage estimated that Parish’s material gain from his fraudulent activities was under $10 million and that the actual amount lost by investors could prove to be less than $50 million by the time his sentencing date arrives, he said.

“There’s a significant amount of gradients in those guidelines, and the lower the actual losses go, the better it is for my client,” he said.

~ Dan McCue, staff writer

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