Ponzi scheme victims to recover full value of investments through pending settlement with Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Motley Rice announces that a subclass of 38 plaintiffs in the lawsuit Brown v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. ( D.S.C., No. 2:07-cv-03852-DCN) has reached a proposed settlement with defendant Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. If the court approves the settlement, these class members will receive the remaining portion of claimed investment losses not recovered from the court-appointed receiver for Al Parish and his various investment vehicles.

Under the proposed agreement, Schwab has agreed to pay the subclass approximately $5.7 million, an amount representing their total unrecovered investment losses plus attorneys' fees. The subclass includes those Parish investors "who held IRA and other investment accounts with [Schwab] and invested in any Parish Investment Vehicle through the brokerage and custodial services provided by Schwab" without the involvement of self-directed IRA custodian Equity Trust Company. The 21 remaining claims will be litigated in the class action certified last December by the federal district court.

"This Ponzi scheme devastated many in our community, and we hope that this settlement will make an important difference in the lives of these victims," said Motley Rice securities attorney Badge Humphries, who serves as class counsel in the litigation. "While we are pleased to announce this partial settlement, we look forward to prosecuting the remaining claims to conclusion."

"We will continue our vigorous prosecution of this class action and hope for a similar result for the remaining class members," commented James Griffin of Griffin LLC, who also serves as class counsel. Along with Humphries and Griffin, Richard "Dick" Harpootlian, of Richard A. Harpootlian P.A., and William Narwold, Motley Rice's securities and consumer fraud practice group leader, are court-appointed counsel to the class.

The lawsuit arose from the Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Al Parish, the former Charleston Southern University economics professor ordered to pay victims $66 million in restitution. Parish is currently serving a 24-year sentence in the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, N.C., where Bernie Madoff is also imprisoned.