A top state financial regulator has refused to release public copies of financial audits of USA Capital, a private lender that had $962 million in investor assets when it filed for bankruptcy in April.

In a July 28 letter to the Review-Journal, Scott Bice, commissioner of the Mortgage Lending Division, said he will not make public the 2004 and 2005 USA Capital audits until he finishes investigating the private lender. He did not say when he expects to complete that investigation.

Bice said audits are subject to a provision of the state law that allows him to keep information secret during an investigation "so the information that you are seeking will not be released until the matter is fully resolved," Bice said.

Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Review-Journal, on Monday questioned the decision to keep the audits secret.

"What is the point of the conducting audits if they are going to be kept from the very people who could benefit from them, the investors?" Mitchell asked. "This is like the police keeping secret that there is a serial killer in our midst so they can catch the killer but not warn people to take precautions.

"Secrecy is also a way to conceal a lack of due diligence by public agencies."

Some investors also are unhappy with secrecy over the contents of the USA Capital audits.

"Everybody should have access to that information. This is not a secret investigation. This is a public bankruptcy," said Phyllis Resler, 69, who invested $54,000 in a USA Capital funds.

"What is the problem that they will not release, especially to the investors that have money hanging out to dry here," Resler said. "I want to know what is going on."

Bice did not return a call for further comment on Monday. In his letter, Bice said: "As you know, the division has always cooperated with your paper when it has been in the best interest of consumers in the state of Nevada."

Thomas Allison, USA Capital's chief restructuring officer, also refuses to disclose the audits.

"We're honoring the MLD investigation," said Mark Olson, chief operating officer of USA Capital. "When that information becomes public from (state mortgage lending), it will become public from us."

Attorneys representing investors in the USA Capital bankruptcy repeatedly have complained that Allison is refusing to disclose detailed information about the company.