Durham trades good life for prison life

INDIANAPOLIS, IN.(WISH) -  

From mansions on Geist Reservoir, to the Marion County Jail.  Tim Durham, James Cochran and Rick Snow are behind bars facing potential life sentences.

  Just after 6:30 Wednesday night, the three were convicted on federal fraud charges.  
 
Durham was convicted on all 12 counts including fraud and conspiracy to committ fraud.

Cochran was found guilty on 8 counts and Snow on five.  

Emails, wiretapped phone calls and a weeks worth of witnesses was enough for the jury to hand down guilty verdicts 8 hours after they got the case.

While the prosecution was all smiles, outside the Federal courthouse in downtown Indianapolis, satisfied that nearly 3 years of work produced guilty verdicts for all three defendants,  the son of Tim Durham left the Federal Courthouse quickly.  

Tim Durham, Timothy Durham's son came down the steps telling reporters, "I still maintain he's innocent and we plan to appeal." 

Durham's son walked out of the courthouse after the verdicts were read, while his father, Tim Durham and Durham's business partner James Cochran and their chief financial officer Rick Snow were all handcuffed and taken to the Marion County Jail.

In jail, because federal prosecutors fear the three might disappear before they are sentenced.  

Assistant U.S. Attorney Winfield Ong said, "The guideline sentences are, we have calculated are basically a life sentence."

Life sentences faced by the three men, convicted of using Fair Finance of Akron Ohio as a personal piggy bank, fleecing 5,000 investors out of more than $200 million dollars.

Money that was used for their personal spending. 

Buying mansions, expensive motorcars and giving loans to family and friends without repayment.

The government fears the three may still have some of that money left somewhere, which could fund an escape from the U.S. 

 "The law presumes, and sets the standard that they have to establish by clear and convincing evidence that they are not a risk of flight," said Ong.  

It was November 2009 that the FBI raided Durham's downtown Indianapolis offices. 

After nearly 3 years of building a case, prosecutors hope investors in Ohio, are watching now.

Said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana: "Although they will never be made whole, it is my sincere hope, that today's verdict brings some measure of justice to the thousands of hard working people whose financial well being was destroyed."

Durham, Cochran and Snow will remain in the Marion County jail at least until Monday. 

That's when their attorneys will get a chance to argue they should remain on home detention, not jail. 

Federal prosecutors say sentencing won't likely take place for about 90 days.