The local blogosphere seems to have scooped the main stream media on a filing by the federal government to seize property of alleged Ponzi financier and political mover and shaker Timothy Durham. I read about the filing first at Advance Indiana and Ogden on Politics. Jon Easter at Indy Democrat apparently had the scoop as well via an e-mail from one of his readers. The federal complaint is here.
Carl Brizzi is looking really bad on this thing. He’s the Marion County Prosecutor. He has a close association with Durham. Durham gave him a ton of money to get elected and served as Brizzi’s finance chairman. If the allegations are true, this Ponzi scheme was going on under Brizzi’s nose. The federal complaint alleges that the company was taking money under the pretense of investing in low risk, high yield consumer debt; never actually investing the money; and taking money from new investors to make payments to older investors. And, of course, it appears that Durham was using the company as a piggy bank.
Getting less attention so far is James Cochran, co-director of Fair Financial, who is also part of the allegations. His political contributions have been minor, so far as I can tell – about $1,000 to the Greater Indianapolis Republican Finance Committee.
In any case, the other candidates who took money from Durham will probably get a pass, more or less, unless further facts emerge. Brizzi is in bad shape because he: a) took a ton of money from Durham; b) he has close ties with Durham; and c) he is in charge of prosecuting criminal behavior.
Incidentally, some good stuff over in the Advance Indiana archives I happened upon while Googling around about this article.
#October 2006 entry “Prosecutor’s Office for Sale?”
Brizzi’s single largest contributor by far is local businessman Timothy Durham, who has contributed almost $160,000 to Brizzi’s campaign. Durham is chairman of Obsidian Enterprises, Inc., a private holding company that invests in small and medium-sized companies primarily in the manufacturing and transportation sectors. He’s also a former partner at Ice Miller. He tells Schnitlzer he’s known Brizzi for a long time and pledged to support him before Kennedy entered the race.
#September 2007 comment on an entry about a party Durham threw.
Tim Durham scares the daylights out of me. He’s creepy. Married into the SerVaas family and gets rich. My what a success little Timmy became and then came the divorce. There went his dream of being the “richest man in the world”. Not only would I not let Durham close to my teenage daughter but I wouldn’t so much as trust him to run a lemonade stand. Durham’s a ticking bomb.
When the CFOs, comptrollers and Brizzi start getting the federal grand jury subpoenaes, then the real fun will start.
I also remember hearing that Brizzi lived with Durham while Carl was getting divorced.
Brizzi is obviously in hot water over the Durham matter, and other Republicans politicians will also likely also be dragged into this muck. But what about Indiana’s top securities law official, Secretary of State Todd Rokita, who’s spent a whole lot of taxpayer dollars telling us how tough he is on securities law violators? Where was he as this scandal unfolded, and why isn’t he being held accountable by the media for failing to uncover what the feds claim to be a massive Ponzi scheme designed by Durham and his confederates to defraud his investors?
Interesting angle. Rokita has, in my opinion, overstated his importance in securities matters. I wonder if he’ll get stuck with the negative side of that coin.