By Dan McCue

CHARLESTON -- Investigators trying to unravel where investors’ money entrusted to former Charleston Southern University economist Al Parish actually went are continuing to make surprising discoveries.

The authorities knew early on that in addition to his residence on Rabbit Run Lane in Summerville, Parish also owned at least four other properties, which included two properties on Edisto Island, one on Tradd Street in downtown Charleston and one in Highlands, N.C.

But a new filing in the U.S. District Court in Charleston reveals that he also owned a one-eighth timeshare on New York City’s West Side that cost him $310,000.

The Web site for the exclusive Phillips Club, located at 155 West 66th St. in Manhattan, just two blocks from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, described the building as “smart,” “stylish” and the city’s “most unique hotel and residential experience.”

The accommodations include “Spacious, comfortable rooms, modern furnishings, full kitchens, luxury hotel services and the privileges of Reebok Sports Club/NY,” the Web site said.

In a letter to the court, Alan Tennant, general manager of The Phillips Club, said the title to the one-eighth timeshare for the eighth floor unit was held in the name of Parish Economics LLC.

The condominium has in its possession an unlocked wardrobe that was kept in storage when parish was not in residence, but an inspection of the piece found “only toiletry items of limited value,” Tennant said.

The timeshare wasn’t the only discovery investigators made this week. In response to a court inquiry, Mecca Consultants, a rare coin dealer in Los Angeles this week confirmed it is currently holding 36 collectible coins for Parish, coins it said are currently valued at $792,390.

Parish paid for these coins in full, said Rosemarie Ingenito, the firm’s proprietor.

Parish also was investing in rare coins almost up to the time of hospitalization for amnesia, directing Ingenito on March 23 to bid on the “Bowers Coin” at auction. Parish’s winning bid was $86,802.

Currently the firm is holding $255,044 in an account Parish had intended to fund more rare coin purchases, Ingenito told the court.

But the coin dealer’s involvement in the Parish case had another side as well, court records indicated. Ingenito was also a Parish Economics investor, having given Parish a total of $75,000 to invest in various investment pools.

Ingenito grew concerned that the last $25,000 personal check she wrote to Parish was not reflected in an account statement he sent her in March, and that she subsequently asked him to liquidate her account, she said.

Ingenito told the court she made the request on March 30, and hadn’t heard from the economist, who now resides in the Charleston County Detention Center.

In addition to the discovery of the coins and condo, movers hired by court-appointed receiver Hays Financial Consulting, of Atlanta, discovered a collection of nearly 200 gnomes in the office parish once occupied at CSU.

The receiver, however, has indicated that the collection is probably of limited value.