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BY KYLE STOCK and Shuyler Kropf
Ulanji LLC, a Summerville-based Web-design company partly owned by Al Parish, has become an integral ally in the investigation of the allegedly fraudulent investment "pools" run by the fallen economist.
Government investigators have said Ulanji's records offer the best chance to piece together Parish's dealing with some 600 investors and their savings, which had climbed to $520 million on paper.
Ulanji, a seven-person firm, is digging up and dicing the statements of Parish Economics LLC, which are housed on its bank of servers. The company contacted government investigators shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Parish, according to Rich Moretz, general manager.
At the same time, Ulanji is spreading the word to clients that its operations are business-as-usual, despite the fact that Parish owns 10 percent of the firm. A long-planned name change to True Prism Technologies Inc. is about to take effect.
Ulanji's employees were paid via a staffing firm owned by Parish, Unlimited Hiring Possibilities. But when the assets of that firm were frozen in the wake of federal fraud charges at the beginning of April, Ulanji shifted its workers to an internal payroll and benefits system without interruption.
It also revoked Parish's seat on the board, according to Leonard and Nancy Forrest, two of the seven partners who own Ulanji.
"At that time, quite frankly, everyone was trying to figure out what was going on," Nancy Forrest said.
Parish, a former Charleston Southern University economist, had little to do with the day-to-day operations at the firm, according to Moretz.
"There are a lot of folks in this market that depend on us and have for years," he said. "We want them to continue that."
Still, the government's charges against Parish, and the corresponding media coverage, have taken a toll at Ulanji, according to Nancy Forrest.
Competitors have called to ask if the business has been closed. Some clients have taken their business elsewhere, on the assumption that the firm was struggling or going under.
Some of those inquiries stemmed from an April 14 article in The Post and Courier that, because of an editing error, mistakenly reported that Ulanji had laid off all of its employees March 31. In fact it was Parish's Unlimited Hiring Possibilities that laid off its workers on that day, according to a court document.
Nancy Forrest said Ulanji is investing in keeping its market share and winning new business with new search-optimization services. Although most of Ulanji's workers had savings in Parish's "pools," they are more dedicated than ever, she said.
"You have never seen a crew that is more passionate and hard-working than that crew I have up in Summerville," she said.
Reach Kyle Stock at 937-5763 or kstock@postandcourier.com.
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