COLUMBIA -- Former Carolina Investors President Larry Owen pleaded Tuesday to no avail to get out of prison.

The 62-year-old inmate told a state parole panel about his work in the prison library, teaching reading and writing. He told them about advising fellow inmates how the stock market works and providing instruction in financial planning and investing in real estate.

And then he broke down in tears as he apologized for the harm that had come to those who had lost money at Carolina Investors.

"It was like my heart was ripped out," he said of hearing of people's woes in the wake of the $278 million collapse of the company in March 2003.

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But one of those investors, who made the trip to Columbia to appear at the hearing, had a different take.

"If he gets out now, it will be a shame and disgrace to the state of South Carolina," said Winfred Scarborough, 76, of Greenville, who said he lost most of the life savings he and his wife placed in Carolina Investors.

The three-member parole panel listened and then voted unanimously to reject his request, citing the nature and seriousness of the offense.

Owen had served 22 months of his eight-year sentence. Tuesday was his first chance for freedom.

More than 100 people had written letters to the parole board in support of Owen, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to 22 counts of securities fraud on the fifth day of his criminal trial.

Owen appealed to the parole panel from Perry Correctional Institution in southern Greenville County via teleconference. He's imprisoned at Livesay Pre-Release Center, but Perry has the closest video hookup.

His appeal was backed by his daughter, Amanda; his lawyer, Jim Bannister and two investors.

Bannister told the panel that Owen has been a "model prisoner" who has cooperated fully with prosecutors. Owen's daughter and the two investors asked for his release.

Owen will be up again for parole at this time next year, Bannister said.

"I just think he got the raw end of the deal," said Wallace Curtis, who said he lost money in Carolina Investors. "He has been a good person. He's not a criminal. If there's a man that should be out of prison, it's Larry Owen."

But five other investors were not so kind.

"If he got a year for every year I worked, that wouldn't be too much," Scarborough told the panel.

He said he and his wife over the years had placed all their savings into the company, from a car accident settlement, a college fund for their granddaughter.

"We'll both probably end up in a nursing home because he lied to us," he said.

Bobby W. Bowen said he has lost $366,785 through Carolina Investors. He said at age 68 he is too old to start over again. He told the panel that he still remembers Owen's answers when he raised questions about the company's financial health.

"He said, 'You're worried about nothing,' " Bowen recalled Tuesday. "He said, 'I swear on my mother I am telling the truth.' "

Robert Capps, another investor, called Owen's sentence "a slap on the hand."

"Might as well not had a trial," he told the panel. "It's a joke."

Mable Bowen, Bowen's wife, also asked that he not be released.

"If you let him out, it is a joke," she said.

State Attorney General Henry McMaster said last week he opposed parole for Owen.