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Fair Finance trustee sues National Lampoon

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Fair Finance Co.’s bankruptcy trustee this week sued National Lampoon Inc. seeking to recover millions of dollars that indicted financier Tim Durham provided the ailing Los Angeles-based comedy business over the past decade.

Durham, who served as CEO of Akron, Ohio-based Fair before its collapse two years ago, “fraudulently transferred at least $9 million of Fair’s money to National Lampoon," where he is a major investor, according to the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

“To disguise the origin of the transfers to National Lampoon, Durham typically funneled” the Fair funds through a variety of other companies he controlled, the suit alleges.

Durham has been on Lampoon’s board since 2002 and has been its CEO since 2008. The money went toward covering Lampoon’s losses, the suit alleges. The company lost $37 million from 2002 until it ceased filing financials with the Securities and Exchange Commission two years ago.

In his lawsuit, Fair Trustee Brian Bash acknowledges it’s unlikely National Lampoon would be able to fully repay the transfers. He asked the court to impose a permanent injunction barring the firm from selling assets without court approval and preventing the transfer of funds to insiders.

A federal grand jury in March indicted Durham and fellow Fair insiders Jim Cochran and Rick Snow on 12 felony counts.

Authorities say that after Durham bought Fair in 2002, he doled out  related-party loans with abandon, leaving the company unable to repay Ohio residents who purchased unsecured investment certificates boasting interest rates as high as 9.5 percent. More than 5,200 investors are owed more than $230 million.

Durham, Cochran and Snow have denied wrongdoing.

Bash, the Fair bankruptcy trustee, alleges Durham “utterly looted” Fair, burning through millions of dollars to support a lavish lifestyle and insolvent businesses he controlled.

Bash said this month that he has recovered about $2 million since he began filing lawsuits and taking other steps to recover money for investors in early 2010. The investors have not yet received a distribution from the recovery.




 

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  • Sue Cindy Landeen too
    Why don't they Cindy Landeen for the $750k that Durham loaned her for running the Alternate Billing Corp. in Minnesota. The FBI shut it down and I think they are still investiagating the camming scam they were running.
  • Shades of Animal House
    To quote National Lampoon's greatest movie, "Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life"
  • Sue Mitch Daniels too
    Why don't they sue Mitch Daniels for the $200k of Durham contribution that he refuses to return, even now that he currently claims he won't be running for another office??
  • Durham, Cochran and Snow?
    Durham, Cochran and Snow? Sounds like Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.

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  1. So the Mayor adds another non value added layer to having a vehicle towed? Whereby the City Government RECIEVES AN ILLEGAL KICKBACK FROM A LGOISTICS COMPANY THAT SUBS THE WORK TO LOCAL TOW COMPANIES? What is the service the City performs for receiving the "tribute"? This is RICO!!!!! What a corrupt and unnecessary layer. What a dirtbag Mayor and his cronies.

  2. Owner occupied housing. Clear enough?

  3. So people think I am paranoid. It's from experience in dealing with puds requested by developers who make major donations themselves to representatives, have nice fund raisers for those running for office and hide through pac's. then there are the public relation firms. You will note some pr comments below. You there Clyde Lee? My opinion. Commercial along 421, great. Multifamily housing, terrible idea that will change the town. Senior condos or zero lot line homes west, great. I suggest keeping all entries to commercial areas at 421. All entries to owner occupied on sycamore. Will keep the traffic on sycamore down some. Two other things. You can't trust what will be there in 10 years. Steve builds quality stuff, but areas change over time. Look at the changes at the wall mart center at 86th and 421 over the last 10 years. Look at the apartments and neighborhoods behind St Vincent's. Raintree properties WILL decrease in value if commercial and multifamily goes in near. It has already been happening around the bridges area. The houses that have been sold recently are way below market. Several deals not closed due to the Illinois construction and the whole unsurety of the bridges. It's pretty simple, Zionsville will approve the whole thing because the city council has been groomed over a LONG period of time for this. I might even suggest some are in their position as a result of this.

  4. Esta, do you have a dog in this fight? You seem to really want to knock anyone against this project. No, I didn't move to Indiana for the architecture. I moved here for that red barn in the field. The horses and fields of corn. A place that is NOT overdeveloped. There are plenty of nearby places in Indianapolis that could be REDEVELOPED instead.

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