This Time, the Spotlight Is Uncomfortably Hot : Lawsuit: Ahmad N. Bayaa would not comment on the SEC suit filed against him. Although his company is in trouble, Bayaa is considered a shrewd businessman.

SANTA ANA — In August, 1988, Ahmad N. Bayaa was relishing the spotlight.

In a high-profile ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point, the then-35-year-old Palestinian businessman was wed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson to a Jewish woman from Yorba Linda.

Before 400 guests, Jackson praised the couple for transcending ethnic prejudice, saying, “This marriage is America at its best” because it “represents joy in Laguna, hope in the world.”

The ceremony, a $50,000 affair that Bayaa said was something special he wanted to do for his fiancee, was a living tribute to the Rainbow Coalition theme of Jackson’s presidential campaign.

Bayaa, a Long Beach resident and the president of Southland Communications Inc. in Santa Ana, is in the media spotlight again. But this time, the ceremony of the day isn’t drawing any praises.

On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Bayaa and securities broker Shaw Tehrani of Atlanta. The suit accuses the men of conspiring, along with several of Bayaa’s friends, to manipulate the stock price of Southland Communications, also known as National Paging.

Through his attorney, Bayaa declined to comment on the action.

The lawsuit comes a little more than a month after the SEC stopped trading of the firm’s stock. That action came after the company’s stock doubled in price within a short period--March 13 to April 3--despite the company’s warning in its first-quarter report that it might not be able continue much longer as a going concern.

Bayaa, whose broad smile and thin mustache make him resemble the rock-star Prince, is described by associates as a shrewd businessman. Despite a modest $40,000 salary, he had expensive habits: he wore flashy $2,000 suits and drove a Bentley.

When co-workers asked about the suits and fancy car, Bayaa would respond that they were part of the trappings necessary to making sales to big companies and courting rich Middle Eastern investors.

By Bayaa’s account, he came to the United States penniless. His family was originally from the city of Acre, near Haifa in Israel, but its members fled to Jordan in 1948 after Israel became independent. The family later moved to Syria and then to a refugee camp near Tripoli, Lebanon, before immigrating to the United States.

Bayaa says he was graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a major in business in 1975 and that in 1981 he launched Southland Communications, a family-run company that employed two other brothers. The firm was taken public in 1987 by K.A. Knapp & Co., a firm later shut down for securities fraud and then purchased in bankruptcy court by John Pehrson.

In mid-March, Bayaa said, he was seeking capital for his struggling paging firm through a $5-million private placement of Southland stock with unnamed investors. James J. Carroll III, Bayaa’s attorney, said the discussions are still continuing.

“He boasted a lot about contacts with oil money, but it was all show,” said one source, who asked not to be identified. “He was courteous and diplomatic, though his English was a little broken. He drives a Bentley even though he can’t afford to be in a Volkswagen.”

As a top executive, Bayaa has been described as the quintessential salesman, a hard worker who frequently traveled abroad on business.

In a company newsletter in April, Bayaa wrote, perhaps prophetically: “Positive motivation results in positive actions, and to me, that is the difference between looking at something as a challenge instead of a problem. Problems breed anxiety and fear becomes the motivator, inviting us to be more creative, assertive and self-assured.”

Despite the troubled status of Southland, Bayaa appeared comfortable with keeping the company publicly held under family management.

Bayaa acknowledged in a recent interview that he and his older brother, Ziad Bayaa, chief financial officer, sold more than $700,00 worth of stock before February for personal reasons, but he said they have retained the bulk of their holdings.

“We believe in this company for the long term,” Ahmad Bayaa said.

In early April, after the SEC suspended trading of Southland’s stock and launched an investigation, Bayaa said he hoped the investigation would be quick so he would be able to speak more freely about the performance of his financially troubled company.

Asked whether he knew of any attempt to manipulate Southland’s stock, Bayaa grimaced and shook his head. Then, flashing a bright smile and recovering his polite demeanor, he said: “Traders make markets. I sell pagers. I don’t know anything more than what I read in the newspapers.”

Bayaa added that he was not aware of any company development that could have prompted the trading frenzy in March and April that led to the trading suspension.

He said that as far as he could tell, most of the trading apparently was prompted by a short sale recommendation issued on March 2, but he said he did not know who had written the report. Traders say the report was issued by Pehrson.

The SEC charges in its suit that Bayaa, Tehrani and other friends of Bayaa bought up large amounts of the thinly traded stock to thwart “short sellers” who were attempting to profit from an expected drop in its price and that they hoped to keep the stock price up long enough so that a private placement of additional stock and an acquisition of another paging company could be completed.