A Canonsburg car dealer hit by suspicious fires June 23 and 24 was at the heart of a penny-stock scandal two years ago in which investors allegedly were misled into buying shares of an over-hyped company.

Disgruntled investors have posted dozens of messages on an Internet message board speculating about a link between the decline of Pinnacle Business Management Inc. and the $1 million fire damage to Vincent Lo Castro's All Pro Auto Mall. Officials have called the fires suspicious but have not ruled them arson.

Lo Castro's auto mall once was a centerpiece of Pinnacle, based in Clearwater, Fla. From early 2001 to last August, Lo Castro was Pinnacle's chief operating officer and president of the All Pro unit he had sold to the company.

In 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Pinnacle, Lo Castro and another executive of fraudulent stock practices stemming from an effort to spin-off the All Pro unit for 20 times more than its value. Pinnacle later fell apart because of financial problems, and the auto mall reverted to Lo Castro.

"Shareholders lost money," SEC spokesman John Nestor said last week.

On a message board at www.ragingbull.lycos.com, investors have posted messages wondering whether the June 24 fire, the one that caused virtually all of the damage, could have been set by one of their number, one of Lo Castro's business associates or another party.

"The fire started around 5:00 P.M. yesterday. OK folks, let's hear some of your alibis," one message said.

"I know most of us shareholders have one time or another felt burnt," a second message said.

"If it is one of the shareholders, it would not surprise me," said another message.

During a brief interview outside the dealership's makeshift office, Lo Castro last week said he did not believe the fires were related to Pinnacle. Canonsburg police Chief R.T. Bell said he was not familiar with the stock controversy.

Under a December settlement with the SEC, Lo Castro and Pinnacle's chief executive officer, Jeffrey G. Turino, permanently were barred from serving as officers or directors of a public company. Lo Castro, 41, of Peters, was fined $25,000 and Turino was fined $60,000.

Some postings on the financial message board expressed support for Lo Castro. But others joked about the fire, criticized Lo Castro and recalled bad experiences with Pinnacle. A few writers expressed concern that Pinnacle-related documents had been lost in the fire.

In an interview, shareholder Chad Luce, of Lewiston, Maine, said investors didn't know the full story of Pinnacle's decline. He said they wanted to see the books or have Lo Castro address their questions.

"People want answers from Vince," Luce said.

Federal records, Pinnacle news releases and the Web site at www.stockpatrol.com jointly offered this account of Lo Castro's association with Pinnacle.

Lo Castro, a Washington and Jefferson College graduate who, by his mid 20s had found success in the telecommunications field, sold a group of car and communications companies to Pinnacle in December 2000. These became Pinnacle's All Pro division, formally known as Lo Castro and Associates.

The sales price was $8 million. Lo Castro became a Pinnacle official and president of the All Pro unit. He and his wife, Kim, at one point owned more than 83 million Pinnacle shares, about 4 percent of the company by the SEC's reckoning at the time.

Pinnacle heralded the acquisition of Lo Castro's companies as a first step in becoming a "multi-industry, multimarket holding company." Pinnacle, formed in 1996, had a venture called Fast PayCheck Advance but operated mainly through the companies purchased from Lo Castro.

With tens of millions of shares trading every day, Pinnacle was one of the most active "pink sheet" stocks, a term referring to stocks of companies that don't meet capitalization or other requirements for listing on most stock exchanges.

Penny stocks generally receive less scrutiny and offer higher risk to investors than those trading for higher prices on an exchange. Because the shares sell so cheaply, a company such as Pinnacle may issue millions of shares more than a blue-chip company.

Pinnacle issued a series of press releases citing All Pro's growth, including the acquisition of King's Auto Sales in North Strabane, expansion of wireless products and services and contracts to install telephone and closed-circuit television systems at businesses and government buildings.

Yet the Web site at www.stockpatrol.com said in February 2002 that Pinnacle was losing money and in danger of defaulting on payments owed to Lo Castro for acquisition of his companies. Two months later, Pinnacle took a step that brought trouble from federal regulators.

Pinnacle issued a news release announcing the proposed spin-off of its All Pro unit. It said All Pro would seek a listing on the American Stock Exchange, predicted an initial trading price of $4 per share and included an AMEX floor broker's enthusiastic statements about the company's plans.

The news release said Pinnacle shareholders would receive one share of All Pro for every 50 shares of Pinnacle penny stock they held May 31, 2002. After issuing the news release, Pinnacle issued another 300 million shares of stock, bringing the total shares to 2 billion, the SEC determined at the time.

The SEC sued Pinnacle, Lo Castro and CEO Turino in federal court in Tampa, Fla., alleging they "misled investors into purchasing Pinnacle shares based on the presumption of an 800 percent windfall in the form of the All Pro dividend." Regulators said Pinnacle and the executives didn't meet the exchange's listing guidelines, misquoted the broker and had no basis for saying All Pro shares would begin trading at $4 each.

Under the 50-for-1 dividend formula, the 2 billion shares of Pinnacle translated into 40 million shares of All Pro. To begin trading at $4 per share, All Pro's capitalization would have to have been about $160 million.

"Given that Lo Castro sold All Pro to Pinnacle in December 2000 for approximately $8 million, and All Pro has not disclosed any news indicating 2,000 percent growth in its value over the past year, the $4 initial price per share projection is baseless," the SEC said.

Lo Castro and Turino vowed to fight the allegations but later agreed to the settlement, in which they admitted no wrongdoing.

In an August SEC filing, Pinnacle announced it had defaulted on its financial payments to Lo Castro and had no assets or revenues. Lo Castro and Turino resigned from the company.

The auto mall reverted to Lo Castro, but the status of other businesses he had brought to Pinnacle was unclear last week. Also unclear was whether Pinnacle records wer e lost in the fire.

Lo Castro said he was unable to devote time to a detailed interview.

In December, Pinnacle announced it had elected new directors and appointed new officers. In April, the company changed its name to Serac Holdings Inc., said it was looking for "merger candidates" and thanked shareholders for their patience.

Luce said he sold some shares for less than he paid for them, losing $40,000. He said he still has more than 1 million shares.

"It dropped so low it's not even worth selling," he said.