Hariston Savior Splits

J.V. McGoodwin said repeatedly over the past year that he was hired at Hariston Corp. in Costa Mesa to distance the company from its troubled past. But now McGoodwin has distanced himself from Hariston.

McGoodwin recently resigned from the company, which is best known for raising, then dashing the hopes of an entire Montana town in 1993.

Hariston promised that it had found a way to clean polluted mining waters and sell the extracted minerals for profit. The company’s stock soared for a while, but then the operation collapsed amid criticism that it was a scam.

McGoodwin joined the company in December 1994, and said he was brought aboard to clean house.

Under his leadership, the company sold its oil and gas holdings to jump into the multimedia software industry. He moved the corporate headquarters from Vancouver to Costa Mesa, though the move was never made official with regulators. And he even pledged just a few months ago that Hariston would change its name to CD-Soft Corp.

Those plans appear to have been put on hold now. McGoodwin resigned last month, reportedly after a squabble with the board of directors over the direction of the company. He has been replaced by Nuno Brandolini, who heads a New York merchant banking firm called Scorpion Holdings.

McGoodwin and Brandolini both declined interview requests. Only James Porter, chief financial officer, would comment.

“Things are somewhat in the air,” Porter said. “Nuno has to provide his own stamp on the company.”

Greg Miller covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com