NASD Orders Trading Halt in Parker Stock : Securities: The suspension comes a day after the FBI searched the financial records of the automotive company in Costa Mesa.
The National Assn. of Securities Dealers on Tuesday suspended trading in the stock of Costa Mesa’s Parker Automotive Corp., a day after FBI agents posted armed guards at the company’s doors and pored over its financial records.
Officials halted over-the-counter trading in the company’s stock at 9:34 a.m. pending a news announcement. However, the company issued no announcement and officials did not return phone calls. The stock was trading at $7.75 a share when trading was suspended, unchanged for the day.
The FBI agents were accompanied by accountants and lawyers armed with a federal court order and representing creditors of Parker North America Corp. Both PNA and Parker Automotive were founded by Michael E. Parker.
The creditors contend in court documents that they were defrauded by PNA and Parker. They recently alleged that Parker took money from the now bankrupt PNA and improperly funneled it into Parker Automotive.
Parker, a high-living Newport Beach resident, is under investigation by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service. A civil lawsuit filed earlier this year by Columbia Savings & Loan alleged that he had defrauded it of $13 million and paid kickbacks to a thrift official.
Parker did not return phone calls Monday or Tuesday but previously has denied any wrongdoing.
PNA, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, 1989, raised money from investors to buy banking equipment and then leased it to financial institutions. A bankruptcy court examiner recently found that money given to PNA to invest wound up in the personal bank accounts of Parker, members of his family, his business associates and at an imported car dealership and a South Lake Tahoe casino.
PNA made up fake investment deals to mislead the company’s biggest investor, Columbia Savings, the troubled Beverly Hills thrift, the examiner said in an official report to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Up to this point, the legal problems of PNA and Parker have not been linked directly to Parker Automotive, which makes equipment for cleaning auto engines and recently completed a $5.3-million private stock offering.
