Jury convicts Ind. financier in $200M fraud scheme

Tim Dunham is seen in a Sept. 15, 2004 photo in Indianapolis. Durham's trial on charges that he bilked investors out of more than $200 million opened Monday, June 11, 2012 in Indianapolis, with his attorney telling jurors that prosecutors were misrepresenting his attempts to save the company. Federal prosecutors say Durham, his business partner and his accountant used a Ponzi scheme to bilk about 5,000 mostly elderly investors at the Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance Co.(AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Frank Espich)

Tim Dunham is seen in a Sept. 15, 2004 photo in Indianapolis. Durham's trial on charges that he bilked investors out of more than $200 million opened Monday, June 11, 2012 in Indianapolis, with his attorney telling jurors that prosecutors were misrepresenting his attempts to save the company. Federal prosecutors say Durham, his business partner and his accountant used a Ponzi scheme to bilk about 5,000 mostly elderly investors at the Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance Co.(AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Frank Espich)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? An Indianapolis businessman accused of looting an Ohio-based finance company after buying it and bilking about 5,000 mostly elderly investors out of more than $200 million was convicted Wednesday on all counts.

A federal jury found Tim Durham guilty of securities fraud, conspiracy and 10 counts of wire fraud. His business partners, James F. Cochran and accountant Rick D. Snow, also were convicted of conspiracy and securities fraud, and some wire fraud counts. When sentenced, the men could face decades in prison.

Durham's defense attorney had argued that the men simply made bad business decisions in the midst of the bewildering economic crisis of 2008. But prosecutors alleged that Durham and his partners pillaged Fair Finance to enrich themselves and their friends ? buying classic cars, houses and casino trips ? and to help Durham's other struggling businesses.

The three men were taken out of the courtroom in handcuffs and will be held in jail pending a hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. Jurors began deliberations Wednesday morning after the judge denied a request from Durham's attorney for a mistrial.

Outside the courthouse, U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett said the verdicts were "a powerful warning that if you sacrifice truth in the name of greed, if you steal from another's effort to carve out the American dream to enhance your own, you will be caught."

Hogsett said he hoped the jury's decision would bring some measure of justice to "the thousands of hardworking people whose financial wellbeing was destroyed at the hands of these men."

Durham's attorney, John Tompkins, said in an email Tuesday evening that his client plans to appeal. Durham maintains that he has done nothing wrong, and "the Durham family stands by Tim and continues to believe in his innocence," Tompkins wrote.

Phone messages seeking comment were left for Cochran's and Snow's attorneys.

Prosecutors claimed that after buying Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance in 2002, Durham and his partners stripped it of its assets and tapped it to buy luxury items. The men also were accused of funneling funds from Fair Finance to Durham's Indianapolis-based holding company, Obsidian Enterprises, to keep its failing subsidiaries intact.

Prosecutors claimed the men operated an elaborate Ponzi scheme to hide Fair Finance's depleted condition from investors and regulators until the FBI raided Durham's office in November 2009. By then, the consumer finance company founded in 1934 was $200 million in debt.

Tompkins had argued that Durham and the others were caught off-guard by the economic crisis of 2008, and bewildered when regulators placed them under more strict scrutiny and investors made a run on the company.

Tompkins said the evidence didn't support the accusation of fraud because Durham stood to lose money if Fair Finance went under, claiming that Durham had sunk millions of dollars of his own money into Obsidian to keep it afloat.

All three men were found guilty on one count of conspiracy and one count of securities fraud. Each also faced 10 counts of wire fraud; Cochran was convicted on six of those counts and Snow on three.

Each of the wire fraud and securities fraud counts carries up to 20 years in prison, while the conspiracy charge carries up to a five-year prison sentence.

A federal grand jury in Indianapolis indicted Durham, Cochran and Snow in March 2010. The allegations against Durham ? a major Indiana Republican Party donor ? led several GOP politicians, including Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions sought by Fair Finance's bankruptcy trustee.

___

Associated Press reporter Charles Wilson contributed to this report from Indianapolis.

Associated Press

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Al-Qaida in Yemen driven from 2 major strongholds

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? Yemeni troops and armed tribesmen drove al-Qaida militants from two major strongholds in the south on Tuesday, a major victory in a U.S.-backed offensive to regain control of large swaths of territory from the terror network in the Arab world's most impoverished country.

The capture of Jaar and Zinjibar came after weeks of heavy bombardment and shelling of al-Qaida positions, with the help of dozens of U.S. troops stationed at a command center in an air base near the conflict zone deep in the southern desert. Troops also liberated a vital highway that links Jaar with the port city of Aden, according to the Yemeni Defense Ministry.

Al-Qaida in Yemen, which the U.S. considers the most dangerous offshoot of the terror network, had exploited the country's political turmoil that resulted from last year's uprising against the former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to seize major population centers in the southern province of Abyan. That raised fears it could use the area as a foothold to launch more attacks on U.S. targets.

The latest strikes leave al-Qaida scattered in smaller towns, valleys, desert and mountainous areas ? similar to the group's situation before the revolt that ousted Saleh began in February 2011. SABA said most of the militants fled to the nearby coastal town of Shaqra, the last remaining major al-Qaida stronghold in Abyan province. Sleeper cells, officials say, will also be a major source of concerns to the Yemeni leadership.

The militant group said it had retreated from Zinjibar and Jaar to "spare bloodshed," but it also threatened to retaliate by attacking Yemen's capital, Sanaa. In an emailed statement, the group addressed the Yemeni leadership as "crusaders and American agents" and warned "we will chase you in your cities and palaces."

Yemeni troops and allied tribesmen swooped into Jaar in a surprise dawn attack after hours of heavy shelling by artillery and rockets from hilltop positions, military officials said. Pro-government fighters rode into town from three different fronts in trucks, while dozens of tanks were used to block the town's entry and exit points, they added.

Residents flocked to the town's center, firing guns in the air in celebration. Others looted warehouses filled with humanitarian supplies delivered by relief groups, Waleed Mohammed, a resident said in a telephone interview.

Gamal al-Aqil, the governor of Abyan province, says Yemeni troops had dealt "painful blows" to al-Qaida "in their biggest dens in Abyan."

"We called the operation the Golden Swords," he said.

Ministry of Defense spokesman Gen. Mohammed al-Quton told the Yemeni state-news agency SABA that 20 militants and four troops were killed in the fighting. Jaar is a gateway to the strategic port of Aden, through which Yemen exports more than 60 percent of its oil and controls the southern tip of the Red Sea.

The officials and witnesses said that some 500 al-Qaida militants, including foreigners, fled the town after spray painting walls and store shutters with slogans in red saying, "Al-Qaida has withdrawn. Al-Qaida was not defeated."

The defense ministry spokesman said al-Qaida's defenses collapsed a day after army troops seized an ammunition factory called Oct. 7 on a hilltop overlooking Jaar. Since then, Katyusha missiles and warplanes pounded positions of al-Qaida in the outskirts of Jaar, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Sanaa.

Jaar resident Khaled Mohsen, said that residents had lost hope that the military would be able to defeat al-Qaida.

"We thought it would take a year in order for the army to get rid of al-Qaida, but we were surprised when they swept into the town in no time," said Mohsen. "I have been hearing constant exchange of gunfire all night, then suddenly everything was quiet. I looked from the windows, and I saw soldiers in uniform in the center of the town."

The military already had taken control of much of Zinjibar, the provincial capital, and the fighting there was lighter because many of the al-Qaida militants had left to help their comrades in Jaar, officials said. Six soldiers were killed when land minds exploded in fields in northern Zinjibar, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

The victories capped weeks of fighting as Yemen's new President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has pledged to uproot al-Qaida from the south with help from the United States as part of a new cooperation following the ouster of Ali Abdullah Saleh amid a popular uprising

The U.S., which considers al-Qaida's Yemen chapter the most dangerous offshoot of the terror network, is helping the Yemenis from a command center manned by dozens of U.S. troops in the al-Annad air base in the southern desert, about 65 kilometers (45 miles) from the main battle zones. The Americans are coordinating assaults and airstrikes, and providing information to Yemeni forces.

The militant group has been blamed for directing a string of unsuccessful bomb plots on U.S. soil from its hideouts in the impoverished country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Most recently, this month it emerged that the CIA thwarted a plot to down a U.S.-bound airliner using a new, sophisticated explosive to be hidden in the bomber's underwear. But the planned bomber was actually a double agent who turned the device over to the U.S. government.

Al-Qaida retaliated last month with a suicide bombing by a soldier who blew himself up among troops rehearsing for a military parade in Sanaa, killing nearly 100 of them in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in years.

Yemen's military has long been largely ineffectual in uprooting the militants. The force is ill-equipped, poorly trained with weak intelligence capabilities and is riven with conflicted loyalties, since some commanders remain close to Saleh.

Hadi also has shaken up the military by purging it from loyalists of Saleh, demoting his family members from their positions as commanders of army units and appointing new ones. He faced resistance as Saleh has been seen as trying to hold power strings from behind the scenes by keeping his loyalists in their positions. Saleh's son, Ahmed, is the top commander of the most powerful Republican Guards force.

Associated Press

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ChrisInCambo: @SvaTom2003 @Spigzy Scratch that, just told that up until last night Gym bar hadn't even been showing the football #wtf. So Score it is.

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60 Minutes To Honor Troops For Memorial Day 5/27/2012

60 Minutes continues its tradition of doing a Memorial Day weekend show dedicated to the men and women who serve in our armed forces. Tonight?s show has a one on one interview with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, combat vets returning to Iraq to face their tragedies head on, and will highlight 5 sets of brothers who are serving in Afghanistan. This Memorial Weekend show will look at the toll our two biggest ongoing wars have extracted on our brave soldiers.

Being wounded in combat is a very traumatic experience that a lot of soldiers have trouble coming to terms with. Who could blame them as most have seen things that would shake the most solid person for a lifetime. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is real and can haunt a person for many years if not dealt with. Some experts have said returning to the scene of a tragedy can help a person deal with it and move on. Is this what the segment tonight will be about? We can?t say for sure until we see the show. Facing tragedy head on has been proven to help people and if returning to Iraq will help a wounded soldier deal with his or her demons then we should do it more often. Returning will give them a chance to reconcile what happened to them and their friends. This should be a very moving segment.

The next segment will be an interview with Dakota Meyer, who is the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor the marines have had in over 48 years. Meyer made a quick decision to head into a firefight and help out other soldiers. It was aid that he is responsible for returning 4 soldiers who were killed and saving over 20 friendly personnel. He also laid down the ground fire that allowed quite a few troops to get out of a highly volatile situation. Meyer is also famous for suing BAE Systems, a defense contractor he worked for, for making false statements about him because he openly objected to the sale of arms to Pakistan. It got pretty nasty for a while but the suit was settled out of court in December of 2011.

Check back here on CMR for a full recap of 60 Minutes at 8pm eastern time tonight.

Photo courtesy of: CBS

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Obama, Karzai push post-2014 vision of Afghanistan

By NBC News and news services

Updated 6:22 p.m. ET: CHICAGO -- President Barack Obama on Sunday pressed world leaders to help implement a strategy for post-2014 Afghanistan after U.S. troops leave, a transition that Afghan President Hamid Karzai said will mark the day that his war-torn country is "no longer a burden" on the rest of the?world.

Obama and Karzai met on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Sunday to discuss Afghanistan's post-conflict future. After the meeting, Obama told reporters that the two-day summit would focus on Afghanistan's move to peace and stability after a decade of war.

---

"We still have a lot of work to do and there will be great challenges ahead," Obama said. "The loss of life continues in Afghanistan and there will be hard days ahead."

Standing next to Obama, Karzai reaffirmed his commitment to the transition timetable?process, which he said will lead to a time when Afghanistan "is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends in the international community, on the shoulders of the United States and other allies."

Karzai also thanked Americans for the help that their "taxpayer money" has done in?Afghanistan.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama, right, shakes hands with with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during their meeting at the NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday.

"Afghanistan is fully aware of the task ahead and of what Afghanistan needs to do to reach the objectives that we all have of a stable, peaceful and self-reliant Afghanistan," he said.

President Barack Obama welcomes foreign leaders to the NATO summit in Chicago. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.

Obama later opened the summit by telling world leaders: "For over 65 years our alliance has been the bedrock of our common security, our freedom and our prosperty, and although times have changed the reasons for our alliance has not."

Obama urged NATO leaders to ratify a "broad consensus" for gradually turning over security to Afghan forces and pulling out most of the 130,000 NATO troops by the end of 2014.

Earlier, a top NATO official?insisted?that the Afghanistan fighting coalition will remain whole despite France's plans to yank combat troops out early.

"There will be no rush for the exits," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. "We will stay committed and see it through to a successful end. Our goal, our strategy, our timetable remain unchanged."

NATO leaders gathered in Chicago to chart a path out of Afghanistan as war-weary Western nations seek to fend off dissent in their alliance and ensure Afghanistan can hold a still-potent Taliban at bay when foreign troops withdraw.

Obama was hosting the two-day summit in his hometown, a day after leaders of major industrialized nations tackled Europe's debt crisis, backing keeping Greece in the euro zone and vowing to take steps necessary to revitalize the world economy.

Public opinion in Europe and the United States is solidly against the war, with a majority of Americans now saying it is unwinnable or not worth continuing.

Newly elected French President Francois Hollande has said he will withdraw all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end ? a full two years before the timeline agreed to by nations in the U.S.-led NATO coalition.

"President Hollande has stated that France would be prepared to support Afghanistan in a different way," Rasmussen said.

But signaling tensions over the issue, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters: "We went into Afghanistan together, we want to leave Afghanistan together."

Hollande repeated a pledge during his inaugural visit to Washington last week to pull "combat troops" from Afghanistan this year. He has said an extremely limited number of soldiers would remain to train Afghan forces and bring back equipment beyond 2012.

"This decision is an act of sovereignty and must be done in good coordination with our allies and partners," said Hollande, who was?to discuss his exit plans with Karzai.

A last-minute addition to the list of leaders at the NATO meeting was President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, whose western tribal areas provide shelter to militants attacking Karzai's government and NATO forces. He pressed the United States to help find a "permanent solution'' to U.S. drone strikes that have fueled tensions between the two uneasy allies.

"The president said that Pakistan wanted to find a permanent solution to the drone issue as it not only violated our sovereignty but also inflamed public sentiments,'' Zardari spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement after the Pakistani leader met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the summit.

The statement did not specify what such a solution might entail.

Gen. John Allen, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told Reuters he was confident a deal would eventually be struck but "whether it's in days or weeks, I don't know."

Zardari also called for the United States to do more to make amends for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers killed in November by U.S. aircraft along the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan has demanded a high-level apology for that incident, which the White House has resisted so far.

Fiscal demands, including plans for major cuts to defense spending in Europe and the United States, were sure to color the talks in Chicago, as they did those between G-8 leaders.

The overarching message from that G-8 summit reflected Obama's own concerns that euro-zone contagion, which threatens the future of Europe's 17-country single currency bloc, could hurt a fragile U.S. recovery and his re-election chances.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters?is included in?this report.

More NATO coverage:

US veterans return war medals in NATO protest
Great-grandmother: Ready to 'lose my life' protesting
Storify: Scenes from NATO summit protesters
Video: Police say?Chicago protesters planned bombings

?

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Leap Motion reveals super-accurate motion control tech, $70 device to change the UI game

In many respects, Microsoft has led the charge towards a future of gesture-based controls with its Kinect, and other tech giants like Samsung and Apple are getting in on the action, too. The move to motion controls isn't limited to the big boys, however. Leap Motion has created a new device, called the Leap, it claims is 200 times more accurate than existing technology and will take gesture controls to the next level.

It's about the size of a pack of gum, and once connected to your computer via USB, it creates a four-cubic-foot virtual workspace. Within that area, it tracks all ten of your fingers simultaneously to within 1/100 of a millimeter -- that level of accuracy allows for rudimentary gestures like pinch-to-zoom and more complex actions like manipulating 3D-rendered objects. Naturally, the company isn't telling much about the black magic making it happen, but Leap Motion claims that its software can be embedded in almost anything with an onboard computer, from phones to refrigerators. Users can customize it to suit their needs with custom gestures and sensitivity settings, in addition to chaining multiple Leap devices together to create a larger workspace. Plus, Leap Motion has created an SDK for devs to create Leap-compatible applications and an app discovery platform to distribute them to others. That means the Leap can work in a variety of use cases, from simply navigating your desktop to gaming and computer-aided design. The best part? Leap brings you this next-gen UX for a mere $69.99, and a select few can pre-order them now, with the full roll-out coming this winter. Full details follow in the PR below, and you can see the Leap in action in the videos after the break.

Continue reading Leap Motion reveals super-accurate motion control tech, $70 device to change the UI game

Leap Motion reveals super-accurate motion control tech, $70 device to change the UI game originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 May 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcretail ? Blog Archive ? Discovering and Getting a Pet Jogger

In case you perform more than 6 hours every day as well as personal your puppy, you?ll need a canine master!

Downtown life can be hard regarding canines. Most of us maintain pets within filled town condominiums and function expanded stays, resulting in a pet dogs lifestyle the industry great distance away via exactly what a countryside or even suv pet that normally has some other garden to be able to wander in daytime ? or maybe they are really fortuitous, miles of available territory in which to frolic.

Yet there is no cause a city pet cannot try a amazing complete well-being. Moving into town possesses his own negatives but additionally brings by using it levels of activation ? points of interest, seems as well as scents ? which usually suburban as well as rural canines by no means get to experience. Area canines may also be furthermore lucky along with far more interpersonal options, whether or not they be with various other dogs all the time or even having a pack of the pals within the community canine car park or puppy operate.

Nonetheless, numerous entrepreneurs work long hours and get energetic sociable lives, that means very long periods through which their particular domestic pets are usually alone. For the canine, therefore hours associated with lack of exercise ? especially in just a little condo or business that has tiny room to learn or even work.

For this reason, many metropolitan dog owners employ nyc dog walkers . Possessing someone take your puppy out and about for exercising as well as comfort one or more times per day helps to make the big difference. The idea smashes upwards individuals long one hrs and gives your furry friend a chance to emerge towards the clean air, extend his or her hip and legs along with lose a number of the calorie consumption they need ingested taking pleasure in. For most puppies, their own day pet walker will be the day friend.

Although your occupation involving canine going for walks getting significantly well-liked, you can find increasing numbers of pet backpackers to select from within urban centers. Pet walking as well as pet sitting providers tend to be springing upwards all over the place plus in many urban centers dog owners are usually spoiled with regard to option. However all puppy jogging solutions won?t be the same ? there are versions inside top quality and type of iPage supplied. Follow this advice for picking the correct puppy master available for you:

Make sure to accurately what exactly you need before beginning searching You need to end up being obvious around the type of support you desire. A huge, set up canine strolling companies tend to be more likely to present satisfaction plus much more security, however, if they?re too large many times their particular services a tad too impersonal ? several be sure that the very same runner every single day, however, many do not. If you?d like the walker plus your canine to develop an agreeable, trustworthy relationship, it?s well worth asking concerning this. A fantastic dog jogging support may designate an every day canine jogger in your puppy along with tell you just about any changes in staffing significantly beforehand. But that they can become a bit a lot more unhealthy with organizing. Additionally, a close impartial puppy master whom operates by yourself is actually sure to develop a close Posicionamiento and you?re simply at risk of develop a helpful romantic relationship along with them oneself, that literally brings familiarity along with fulfillment. The particular downside is the fact only hikers hardly ever have anyone to give a support after they become unwell or even visit.
Set up an excellent routine, after that anticipate to give up In the end, most canine owners choose to their dog being went through the core of the evening, that usually implies among 11am and also 3pm inside the pet going for walks organization. Because of this afternoon occasion machines come in great desire and it is less likely that you will work with a roofing who can assure your current best timetable. Expect you?ll skimp using a leeway of approximately an hour each side of the ideal. Moreover, in case you choose a function you have to know which pet going for walks is usually a profession the nature that signifies it can be extremely difficult to keep using a plan 100% correctly daily. Ramblers frequently have to go to between canines and can happen way up which has a thousand then one distinct scenarios. Don?t let yourself be also unhappy but if your dog walker will come slightly early or late every single day ? usually it wouldn?t end up being made it easier for. End up being focused on virtually any dog jogging services that will promises punctuality for that moment ? usually they may not be getting trustworthy with you!
Puppy jogging throughout packages or perhaps on their own? This is the way viewpoint is actually split strongly for the middle! This is a typical sight within towns such as Nyc to determine load up ramblers with as much as a dozen canines at any moment ? but are these claims really things you need to your puppy? The reward for this sort of companies are generally mostly price tag ? pack go walking rates are occasionally fifty percent the cost of personal or even small group taking walks and sometimes last longer. About the pessimistic, your furry friend will not acquire wherever at the identical amount of consideration it could inside a smaller sized team or even alone ? and infrequently much of your walk is expended resting sure inside large organizations throughout the sidewalk because the dog master has a dog upstairs to its condo. It is obvious that you have a powerful interpersonal element in order to these kinds of walks that many pet dogs take pleasure in, but also for the higher diploma a lot of dog owners choose their pet dogs becoming went within smaller sized delivers or even alone. Many individuals furthermore concern yourself with dogs combating in large delivers even though this could be exceptional, it is going to occasionally happen. Somebody, non-public go walking brings from it the particular backpackers complete consideration, even so, an individual should also take into account that the majority of dogs appreciate some kind of interpersonal ? thus think about deciding on a service which walks pairs or modest sets of simply three. Several dog backpackers will reveal that will canines who have conduct ?issues? on the street using their owners profit drastically via getting walked along with an additional dog, whose reputation typically acts for you to ?center? an added dog along with cause a fantastic a higher level focus and also consideration. However, there?s no keeping away from the fact several canines merely won?t abide the company of other canines whatever! At the conclusion of the day you understand your own puppy as good as anybody and the selection is completely the one you have to make.

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