Former HomeGold exec Sterling appeals conviction

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A former executive involved in one of the biggest bankruptcies in South Carolina history has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn his securities fraud conviction and five-year prison sentence.

An attorney for former HomeGold Financial Inc. Chairman Jack Sterling told the justices Tuesday the state did not prove its case against him. William Wilkins also argued a judge should not have allowed testimony from investors who lost nearly everything because that had no bearing on Sterling’s guilt or innocence.

The 73-year-old Sterling has been free on $100,000 bail since he was found guilty of securities fraud in 2009.

Sterling was one of six executives convicted or who pleaded guilty after HomeGold’s subsidiary Carolina Investors went bankrupt in 2003, leaving 8,000 investors with a combined loss of about $275 million.