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Durham lawyer balks at proposed 225-year sentence

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The attorney for convicted Ponzi schemer Tim Durham is howling in protest at a presentencing report that recommends the Indianapolis financier spend around 225 years in prison and be ordered to pay $209 million in restitution.

The report is not public, but Durham’s attorney, John Tompkins, revealed its contents in a 38-page filing Wednesday that called the harshness of the proposed sentence “absurd.”

Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson is scheduled to sentence Durham, 50, and co-defendants Jim Cochran and Rick Snow on Nov. 30. A federal jury in June found Durham guilty on all 12 felony charges stemming from the collapse of Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance Co.

Durham co-owned Fair with Indianapolis businessman Jim Cochran, who was convicted on eight of 12 felony charges. Snow, the company’s chief financial officer, was convicted on five of 12 counts.

Prosecutors charged that after Durham and Cochran bought the business in 2002, they raided its coffers to fund their lavish lifestyles and to cover losses at failing businesses they owned.

The huge withdrawals—which were recorded as loans but were not repaid—left Fair without the means to repay 5,000 Ohio residents who purchased more than $200 million of the company's unsecured investment certificates, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed in March 2011.

Judges have final say on sentencings but typically rely on presentencing reports, which are prepared by federal probation employees. Prosecutors did not lodge an objection to the report by Wednesday's deadline.

Tompkins’ objection argued that the report miscalculates the losses suffered by investors, includes a range of allegations that weren’t proven at trial and blames Durham for events outside his control.

Fair shut down in November 2009, following a surprise raid of the company’s offices by FBI agents. A month earlier, IBJ had published an investigative story that questioned whether the insider loans imperiled the company’s ability to repay investors.

“The FBI’s decision to raid Fair Finance’s offices, seize records and just walk away leaving fear and panic  … caused the disintegration of a company that employed approximately 75 employees, and held hundreds of millions of dollars in assets,” Tompkins said in his filing.

Court records don’t say what prison terms presentencing reports recommend for Cochran and Snow. Snow’s attorney did not object to the report. A recently appointed public defender representing Cochran was granted more time to decide whether to object.

Prosecutors made available hours of wiretapped conversations between Durham and Cochran, as they scrambled to keep Fair afloat. IBJ collected some key exchanges in a series of edited recordings. In the conversation below, from Nov. 24, 2009, Cochran and Durham briefly discuss the possibility they could serve jail time.

 

 

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  • Tim Durham's death sentence?
    I could not agree with you more. 225 years for being a con-artist? There are people who committed much worse crimes who don't spend their life in prison.
  • Tompkins!!????????
    Millions of dollars in assets, then where are they and how is it the Trustee can't find them. How much did Obsidian owe 30MM++ and had one company that was actually making money (United)and couldn't pay back it's loan in a hundred years. What about all the "assets" that were being carried on the books as loans for companies that were closed for many years. The fact is this ship was sinking for years and Captain Timmy was at the helm.
  • Prison for Non-violent Criminals
    Putting Tim in prison is a complete waste of our tax dollars. The man should go back to work and be monitored/put on probation, etc. but be required to work and pay back some of the lost money. We are paying too much for non-violent criminals to be housed, fed and educated on our tax dollars. Instead, why not create a few more jobs by adding monitors for the non-violent offenders? He should work the rest of his life - not lounge around in a white collar prison playing tennis and eating bon-bons all day!
    • What else is there to say
      Well done Mikey - you summed up the life of Durham perfectly. Rot in jail Timmy

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    1. The Fringe! Plus, the simple fact that there are so many local faves in such close proximity to each other.

    2. I remenber, watching the toll road, being built, through South Bend, when I was 10 years old. I believe, back then that it was estimated, that the toll road, would be paid for in 20 years and then it would be free. I am now 71, what happened? Since the power is in the people, by that, I mean that, we the people are in total control of everything. I, suggest that no one ever use the toll road again, let it go broke. We the people can control the price of everything, from groceries to gas, if we would just do it. If we don't pay the asking price, the sellers will lower the price and if we wait awhile, they will lower the price to what we accept as reasonable. I would like to know why a highway like interstate 94, is so well maintained, a much better highway, than the toll road, but has no tolls. I would also like to know why, a sitting governor, with a term limit, maximum of eight years, can lease, public property, for 75 years. Even though I have transponders in both of my trucks and will not be affected by the increase, I have been and will contine to avoid using the toll road. I make many trips from northern Indiana to Chicago, every year, and I prefer the better highway, I94!

    3. Coming from her background,she should be used to those kinds of advances! Menard probably figured it was ok to tuck a buck!

    4. I'm still waiting for the list of available, high quality apartments in the Village.

    5. This criminal masquerading as a lawyer obviously has serious issues. He’s been proven by his own testimony to be a pathological liar and probably has a personality disorder as he seems to be constructing a reality around himself. He places no value on truth, honesty or loyalty as evidenced by what he has done to his clients and his own family. And by the demands and lies he has made in court, it is evident he feels entitled to do and say whatever suits his purpose and everyone else is expected to nod obediently and believe him because he is, after all, Bill Super Lawyer; or BS lawyer for short. This millionaire wanna-be no longer owns anything of value; he squandered it and put everything he had into foreclosure. He has no money, house, car, boat or vacation home left to show for what he earned or what he stole. He’s just another loser without morals who will be doing time. I’m certain all of his courtroom shenanigans are antagonizing his poor victims. As Lamar said, his behavior and claims in court have been outrageous. The judge needs to be more than concerned; he needs to be judicial and end this nonsense.

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