By Dan McCue

CHARLESTON -- There won't be any walk down memory lane for the man who was arguably one of the world's foremost collectors of Red Skelton clown paintings: Al Parish has agreed to plead guilty to charges he bilked scores of investors out of close to $100 million.

Parish, the disgraced former Charleston Southern University economist who is recovering from what experts at the Medical University of South Carolina have described as stress-induced amnesia, is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning to change his plea from innocent to guilty.

Federal prosecutors have not released the details of the plea agreement, but it is believed that in return for waiving his right to a trial that was to have begun early next year, the U.S. Attorney's office will drop eight of the 11 criminal fraud charges it had filed against him.

If that's borne out in U.S. District Judge David Norton's courtroom shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday, the maximum sentence parish may ultimately receive will be 45 years. If he had been convicted of all 11 charges after a trial, he faced a potential sentence of 205 years.

Parish, who made a name for himself around Charleston through his annual economic forecasts, his loud clothes and penchant for collecting everything from Mont Blanc pens to garden gnomes, will not be formally sentenced until a later date.

Between Friday's hearing and his sentencing hearing, Parish's attorney, Andrew Savage, will be trying to find ways to reduce his client's prison time.

Judge Norton is also expected to weigh the testimony of Parish's investors, many of whom lost their life savings as a result of his deeds.