SC Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Monday his office has ordered a USC Upstate professor to cease and desist from offering unregistered securities related to a new private college start-up.
Wilson's order was directed at professor Richard "Ric" Routh, of Rutherfordton, N.C., a USC Upstate business informatics professor reportedly starting a private college called Invictus University.
Wilson said in a press release that Routh's intent was to finance the school through investor stock purchases, but ordered Routh to cease any further activity since neither Routh nor the school is registered with the Secretary of State in the state nor obliged to sell securities by the state's Securities Division, which Wilson oversees.
A website mentioned by Wilson allegedly contained several invitations to invest specific amounts, even though a disclaimer said the site was not offering securities, Wilson said. The site address given by Wilson on Monday, however, appeared to have been taken offline or was still under construction.
Late Monday afternoon, USC Upstate released the following statement on the AG's order:
"We have not spoken with the Attorney General’s Office yet about these charges as they go beyond the institutional scope of Ric Routh’s role as an adjunct faculty member. However, we are looking into whether his efforts to establish a private university constitute a conflict of interest at the University of South Carolina Upstate."
“We always try to quickly warn South Carolinians when an investment is not complying with state law. That is why we ordered this company to stop offering securities in South Carolina,” Wilson said in a news release.
Wilson said the Securities Division’s investigation into Invictus is ongoing. Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.