Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Fair Finance Drops Bid To Sell More Securities

The IBJ and the Star have online reports today on Fair Finance's decision to withdraw its request to Ohio security regulators to issue an additional $250 million in securities. An attorney for Fair Finance claims the company is unable to provide the additional information requested by Ohio officials because information it needs is not in its possession after the FBI conducted a raid of its offices in late November of last year. It seems unlikely that the company will be able to repay more than $200 million owed to investors if it is unable to offer additional securities. Fair's offices have remained closed since its offices were raided.

During last year's November FBI raid, the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Indiana filed a civil forfeiture action in which it accused the firm's owner, Timothy Durham, of running a Ponzi scheme. Days after filing the action, U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison abruptly dropped his action without explanation. Several members of the news media, including the Star, the Akron-Beacon Journal, the Wall Street Journal and the IBJ, have gone to court to force the government to release information on the search warrants it executed against Durham's Obsidian Enterprises and Fair Finance. Judge Sarah Evans Barker denied their initial request, but a new request has been filed that awaits a determination.

No comments: