COLUMBIA -- Attorney General Henry McMaster said Wednesday the state grand jury has ended its investigation of the collapse of Carolina Investors Inc. and its parent company, HomeGold Financial Inc.

The 36-month investigation led to the indictments of six former officers of Carolina Investors or HomeGold. Four of those officers have been convicted of wrongdoing and two others are awaiting trial.

Whether other action is possible remained unclear late Wednesday.

McMaster said the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating.

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SEC officials couldn't be reached for comment.

McMaster called the state investigation "the largest and most complex white-collar investigation in state history" and said his office did all it could to find those responsible for the failure.

"Every investigative avenue has been pursued, every lead has been followed to the end and probable cause for further indictments does not exist," McMaster said at a news conference at his office.

About 12,000 people -- most of them from the Upstate -- lost $278 million when Carolina Investors collapsed in March 2003.

Investors had mixed reaction to news the state has ended its investigation.

"I'm sure that the attorney general has done everything possible to find out what happened, how it happened," said Don Bobo, a Pickens hardware storeowner and a longtime member of the Carolina Investors board of directors.

He lost $2.1 million when his hometown company failed.

Another investor, James Cooley, said those accused of wrongdoing "ought to be made to pay for what they did. If they can't pay for it, suffer the consequences."

The retired telephone worker from Mauldin had $10,000 in Carolina Investors.

McMaster has asked for full restitution for investors, but said the issue is up to a judge.

McMaster said that over the course of the state's investigation, two different state grand juries heard testimony from 148 witnesses and issued 205 subpoenas for documents and evidence.

In a final report summarizing the investigation, the grand jury said the earlier indictments "speak for themselves."

"We believe that there are no additional witnesses or documents which should be or need to be subpoenaed in this investigation. We also believe that all individuals as to which probable cause exists, who were part of the scheme for securities violations, have been indicted," the grand jury said in its report.

The most recent indictment came in April against John M. "Jack" Sterling Jr., a longtime Greenville businessman who was HomeGold's chairman and chief executive officer.

Sterling was indicted on three criminal counts, including securities fraud and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty. A trial date has not been set.

In its seven-page report, the state grand jury said it began investigating Carolina Investors and HomeGold after the General Assembly in June 2003 amended state law to expand its power so it could investigate securities fraud.

McMaster requested the investigation and a judge authorized the probe, the report said.

"We have explored every lead and followed all investigative avenues," the grand jury said.

The panel said it "thoroughly investigated" activities at Carolina Investors, HomeGold and "other entities" it did not name.

Carolina Investors was formed in 1963 by the late Dwight Holder, a Pickens businessman who owned and operated a chain of perpetual care cemeteries.

The company initially financed the sale of cemetery plots through the annual sale of one-year subordinated debentures and notes to the public.

It subsequently engaged in other types of lending in South Carolina, including sub-prime lending for people with less than ideal credit seeking loans for mortgages, automobiles and appliances.

In May 1991, Carolina Investors was acquired by National Railway Utilization Corp. Three months later, National Railway changed its name to Emergent Group Inc.

In March 1998, Emergent changed the name of its retail mortgage business to HomeGold Inc., and the parent company subsequently became HomeGold Financial.

But the market for high-risk mortgages crashed in 1998, and HomeGold found itself going deeply into debt. And by 2002, HomeGold owed more to Carolina Investors' depositors than the company was worth, prosecutors said.

On Wednesday, McMaster reiterated what he has often said about the magnitude of the case, which erased scores of retirement accounts, money for children's and grandchildren's college educations and money used to pay medical expenses.

"It's one of the saddest things that I have seen," he said.

The investors "lived their lives just like you would hope people would and invested their money and thought it was safe," McMaster said.