GREENVILLE -- Former Carolina Investors Chairman Earle Morris now awaits his fate after a jury found Morris guilty on securities fraud charges Thursday afternoon.

The jury deliberated for about five hours before returning the verdicts on the 22 charges shortly before 4:30 p.m.

Morris remained composed as the verdicts were read, though one of his daughters cried.

Morris could receive five years in prison and up to a $1 million fine for each count, though there is no minimum sentence. Attorney General Henry McMaster told WYFF News 4's Brad Willis that he intends to ask for a jail sentence.

"We simply followed the evidence where it led, and it led us to this point today, but the investigation is not over," McMaster said.

Thousands of investors lost $278 million when Pickens-based Carolina Investors went bankrupt in 2003. They will get about 18 cents back for each dollar invested as part of a civil settlement.

Morris had claimed he was kept in the dark about the company's financial condition and was only telling shareholders what others in the company were telling him.

Howard and Myrtle Brooks missed only a day and a half of the three-week trial. They said Morris' conviction is bittersweet for them.

"We've worked hard for what we've been able to accumulate and we certainly didn't want to give it away, especially in the way this has happened," Howard Brooks said. "All of us are losers. There's no winners at all and we regret it come to this."

"It's very painful, because I have enough right in me to feel for this family and to feel what they are going through. But yet, I don't know how it happened. I don't know why they are in this position. I know we did not place them there," Myrtle Brooks said. "We've been put through agony. Some can laugh and some can cry, but it's still a real experience when you go home at night that you've lost your money."

Sentencing will take place at 10 a.m. Friday.

Watch Brad Willis' Interview With Attorney General Henry McMaster