Calls reveal apparent Durham schemes

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The federal fraud trial of indicted Indianapolis businessman Tim Durham finished its first week Friday.

For the first time, 24 Hour News 8 can let you hear for yourself some of the phone conversations between Durham and his business partner, John Cochran, as the two appear to scheme to keep their sinking business empire afloat.

"This is the answer. I mean basically we just make $25, $28 million dollars in loans vanish." That's the voice of Tim Durham in November 2009, as recorded by an FBI wiretap on his cell phone. To hear more, click to play the video above.

Durham and his business partner Cochran, along with Chief Financial Officer Rick Snow, are accused of using Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance as their own piggy bank, funding a lavish lifestyle of big mansions and fancy cars.

At the time of the wiretap, Fair Finance, and most of Durham's businesses, were running out of money. In this conversation, Durham tells Cochran to find a way to keep a Fair Finance investor from cashing in his investment certificate.

Durham says to Cochran: "I'm not going to make that call. But if you can push anybody, push him. Use the same reason you used yesterday with the other guy. But don't use the explanation too often, because it's not really true."

During the time of the wiretaps, Durham and Cochran were trying to get permission from the state of Ohio for Fair Finance to sell another $250 million in investment certificates. This is Cochran on the wiretap tapes: "I'm sure we're going to get it approved, I just want to get it done before we run out of money."

And in this call, Durham tells Cochran he's found a way to make it look like Fair Finance is in better financial shape than it is. Says Durham: "What it basically does is give us the ability to write off an additional $25 million in debt, bad debt loans that we don't have to cover or worry about."

Cochran asks: "Does it spell that out?"

Durham answers: "No, they literally disappear from the balance sheet in the distribution."

Cochran laughs loudly than says: "Good."

Those excerpts just scratch the surface of what has been played for jurors in the case. All three defendants each face 12 felony charges.

The trial is moving much more quickly than expected, with the prosecution likely to finish as early as Monday. The jury could get the case by the middle or end of next week.