Corporate & Securities Law

Lawsuits Multiply For Tim Durham, Fair Finance

Posted on December 23, 2009
Tim Durham?s holiday season is getting filled with presents of lawsuits and investigations over allegations that his company, Fair Finance, was running a Ponzi scheme, using money raised from selling investment certificates to pay off earlier investors...

Pacific Cornerstone Capital In The Hot Seat For Private Placements

Posted on December 21, 2009
Pacific Cornerstone Capital and former CEO Terry Roussel face $750,000 in fines by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Industry (FINRA) for making misleading statements and omitting facts in connection with sales of two private placements. FINRA also charged the broker/dealer and Roussel with advertising violations and supervisory failures...

Newspapers File Motion In Tim Durham, Fair Finance Case

Posted on December 20, 2009
Two newspapers have filed a motion to unseal federal search warrants connected to FBI raids of businesses owned by Timothy S. Durham. The Indianapolis Star and the Akron Beacon Journal filed their motions on Dec. 18, stating that the public has a right to know what federal investigators were seeking in the Nov...

Fair Finance: Latest Update On Tim Durham?s Ohio Business

Posted on December 20, 2009
Fair Finance has yet to reopen its doors for business. The only signs of life at the company?s Akron headquarters: Several more signs behind the building have been recently marked with the words, UnFair Finance. Last week, a news release issued by lawyers for Fair Finance said the company hoped to restart its accounts receivables billing [...

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Private Placement Claims On The Rise

Posted on December 17, 2009
Private placement claims are on the upswing, prompting new questions on whether these largely unregulated securities are appropriate investments for many individual investors. A number of the claims filed in recent months target smaller broker/dealers that investors say sold them fraudulent private placements...

Private Placements, Reg D Offerings Under New Scrutiny By FINRA

Posted on December 16, 2009
Private placements, or Regulation D offerings, are the subject of several investigations by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which is concerned about how various brokerages marketed and sold the offerings to investors. As reported Dec...

Kelvin Koma, William Gray, Dermot Graham Cited By FINRA

Posted on December 16, 2009
Kelvin Koma, a former financial adviser with JP Morgan Chase Bank, has been barred from associating with any member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). FINRA imposed the sanction over allegations that Koma obtained ATM cards belonging to customers of his member firm?s affiliated bank and then used the cards to make unauthorized withdrawals [...

Lehman-Backed Main Street Natural Gas Bonds A Nightmare For Investors

Posted on December 16, 2009
As everyone knows by now, the meltdown on Wall Street has affected Main Street in unexpected, unusual and unprecedented ways. Consider the enchanting world of Walt Disney?s Magic Kingdom. As reported a year ago by USA Today, the natural gas that cooks the food in Disney?s Magic Kingdom - and elsewhere throughout America?s Main Street [...

Some Preferred Stock Is Preferred No More

Posted on December 12, 2009
Overconcentration in certain preferred stocks has devastated the portfolios of thousands of investors. Problems first began when already fiscally troubled companies such as Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), Lehman Brothers (LEH) and Citigroup (C) issued shares of preferred stocks as a way to raise capital...

Fair Finance Press Release Creates More Questions For Investors

Posted on December 12, 2009
A press release from Fair Finance on the state of its affairs leaves many unanswered questions, not the least of which is when and if investors will be able to redeem their investment certificates. Fair Finance, which is owned by Indianapolis businessman Tim Durham, has been closed since Nov...

The Carl Brizzi, Tim Durham Connection

Posted on December 12, 2009
Fair Finance, the Ohio company owned by Tim Durham and the focus of allegations by federal authorities of operating as a possible Ponzi scheme, has new and troubling revelations. This time, they involve Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, who?s been at the center of the Durham controversy for his financial ties to the Indianapolis businessman [...

Preferred Stock Losses: You Have Options

Posted on December 10, 2009
Preferred stock losses in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and other fiscally troubled companies have cost investors dearly over the past two years. Preferred shares generally are considered more conservative, low-risk - investments especially attractive to retirees seeking predictable income via dividends...

Fair Finance: Doors Remain Shut To Investors On Dec. 7

Posted on December 08, 2009
Fair Finance?s offices in Akron, Ohio, remain closed, leaving investors with no answers and no access to their money. One investor who has $140,000 invested with Fair Finance and its co-owner Tim Durham showed up at the company?s Market Street headquarters at 7:30 a...

SEC Obtains Asset Freeze Of Joseph Blimline In Provident Royalties Case

Posted on December 07, 2009
Provident Royalties Joseph S. Blimline faces a temporary restraining order and emergency asset freeze by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for his alleged role in a $485 million fraud and Ponzi scheme involving oil and gas placements. The SEC obtained the order on Dec...

Recovering Losses In Freddie Mac Preferred Stock

Posted on December 07, 2009
Investments in Freddie Mac preferred stock have caused financial havoc for countless individual and institutional investors. A number of full-service brokerage firms sold Freddie Preferred Stock (including Series W (FRE-PW), Series X (FRE-PX), Series Y (FRE-PY), and Series Z (FRE-PZ) as a safe, stable fixed-income investment, causing investors to overconcentrate their portfolios...

Securities America, Bradley K. Hofhines & Summit Retirement Advisors Sued Over Provident Royalties Securities

Posted on December 07, 2009
Securities America and financial adviser Bradley Hofhines have been sued in a potential class action tied to Provident Royalties and oil-and-gas private placements that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged in July were fraudulent. Securities America has been named in at least two other related potential class actions; however, this may be the first [...

FINRA Rules In Favor Of Investor In Lehman Principal Protected Notes Case

Posted on December 06, 2009
UBS AG faces dozens of arbitration claims from U.S. clients who bought 100 percent principal protected notes issued by Lehman Brothers Holdings that turned out to be virtually worthless after the company filed for bankruptcy in September. Now, in one of the first cases to be heard by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an [...

Fair Finance, Timothy Durham Face New Legal Problems

Posted on December 05, 2009
A newly filed class action lawsuit against Fair Finance accuses the Akron, Ohio, company of misrepresenting investments sold to thousands of Ohio investors. According to the complaint, Fair Finance co-owners Timothy Durham and James Cochran purchased Fair Finance in 2002 and proceeded to convince investors to invest tens of millions of dollars by misrepresenting critical [...

Fair Finance Hit With Class Action Lawsuit

Posted on December 04, 2009
Fair Finance, the Akron, Ohio, company co-owned by Indianapolis businessman Timothy S. Durham, faces a class action lawsuit that is seeking to rescind $200 million in investor purchases of Fair Finance securities. The lawsuit, which was filed Dec. 4 in Summit County, Ohio, by the law firms of Maddox Hargett & Caruso P...

Investors Still Unable To Access Accounts At Fair Finance

Posted on December 02, 2009
Offices of Tim Durham?s Akron-based Fair Finance Company remain closed following FBI raids that occurred on Nov. 24. Today, a lawyer representing Durham said customers may have access to their accounts next week, although not to 100% percent of their investments...

CLST Holdings Receives Subpoena Over Ties To Tim Durham, Fair Finance

Posted on December 02, 2009
CLST Holdings (CLHI) revealed in a recent 8-K filing that it had received a subpoena from the Division of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection to financial dealings between it and Fair Finance, the Ohio-based consumer finance firm owned by Timothy Durham and the same company that is the subject of [...

Tim Durham, Fair Financial Probe Continues On

Posted on December 01, 2009
When federal officials filed a complaint on Nov. 24 to seize the assets of Fair Finance owner Tim Durham, the allegations focused on Durham?s alleged involvement in a Ponzi scheme to defraud Ohio investors. On Nov. 30, U.S. Attorney Timothy Morrison mysteriously withdrew the request for seizure of Durham?s properties and banking accounts on grounds [...

Tim Durham Update: New Twist In Fed?s Efforts To Seize Assets

Posted on November 30, 2009
The federal government withdrew its request to seize the assets of Indianapolis financier Tim Durham on Nov. 30. According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, the U.S. Attorney?s Office based its decision on assurances that Durham?s assets were not being dissipated...

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Preferred Stock Losses

Posted on November 30, 2009
Thousands of institutional and retail investors of Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) preferred stocks have witnessed the collapse of their investment portfolios following the government?s takeover of the two mortgage giants on Sept. 6, 2008. Many of these investors initially purchased huge concentrations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock based on [...

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Preferred Stock Loss Recovery

Posted on November 30, 2009
Investment losses in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock have created devastating financial issues for investors throughout the country. Many of these individuals were sold shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through brokerages or financial institutions that, in turn, misrepresented the investments, telling clients that the stock was guaranteed or implicitly guaranteed by [...

Columbia Strategic Cash Portfolio Fund Spells Money Woes For Some Institutional Investors

Posted on November 30, 2009
The fate of the Columbia Strategic Cash Portfolio Fund was sealed on Dec. 10, 2007, when losses on investments in mortgage and certain asset-backed securities combined with a $20 billion withdrawal from a single institutional investor forced Bank of America to shutter one of the largest U...

Feds Seek Seizure Of Tim Durham?s Residences, Banking Accounts & Other Assets

Posted on November 29, 2009
Timothy Durham?s rich and famous lifestyle may have had less to do with investing prowess and more to do with his ability to allegedly defraud investors, according to court papers filed by the federal government on Nov. 24. The documents accuse Durham of committing wire fraud and seek forfeiture of Durham?s $30 million mansion, his [...

Disclosures Central To FBI Probe Of Tim Durham?s Fair Financial

Posted on November 28, 2009
The FBI isn?t talking, but local and national news outlets have plenty to say about simultaneous raids that took place Nov. 24 on two Tim Durham companies - Indianapolis-based Obsidian Enterprises and Fair Financial in Akron, Ohio. At both locations, federal agents hauled away numerous boxes containing banking-related information and other documents...

Tim Durham: Where There?s Smoke, There?s Fire?

Posted on November 28, 2009
Obsidian Enterprises and Fair Financial Services Tim Durham is so rich he once stated during a CNBC interview that he often lost track of how many cars he actually owned. Durham runs Obsidian Enterprises and Fair Financial Services, which specialize in buying debt-ridden companies...

SEC Charges Aura Financial With Excessive Churning

Posted on July 10, 2009
Birmingham-based investment firm Aura Financial Services and six of its employees face lawsuits by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Alabama Securities Commission (ASC) on charges of ?rampant churning? of customer accounts,  supervisory failures and other securities violations...

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