Pol: No Rand scheme to manipulate stock.

• Position: Triangle

After he was fired in August as president of Raleigh-based Law Enforcement Associates Corp., Paul Feldman claimed other shareholders might have engaged in stock manipulation and insider trading. But during the highest price spike in the company's history, he did better than some of those he accuses. In a complaint to the U.S. Department of Labor in November, Feldman says about 50 North Carolina politicians--"including former and present governors"--bought large amounts of stock in LEA, a maker of surveillance equipment, in 2004 and 2005, possibly based upon inside information from Tony Rand. Then an LEA director and now its chairman, Rand was state Senate majority leader before stepping down Jan. 1 to head the parole board. Gov. Beverly Perdue bought about $1,000 of LEA stock in 2002 and never sold it, Perdue spokeswoman Chrissy Pearson says. Feldman, who had been president eight years, was let go for poor performance and insubordination, according to the company.

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Feldman also contends that Rand told former LEA sales director Martin Perry last August that, based on inside information from "Frank Holding (president of First Citizens Bank and a personal friend of Rand)," he "had bought the bank's stock at $60 per share and sold it at over $700 per share." i Rand planned to do the same with LEA stock, Feldman says. Rand denies it, saying he wanted to buy out small LEA shareholders to reduce the total to fewer than 300--as Columbia, S.C.-based First...