Federal filing lists another Brizzi investment in Durham-related firm

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi is listed in a federal filing as an investor in Los Angeles-based Red Rock Pictures Holdings, a company linked to embattled Indianapolis businessman Tim Durham.

Brizzi disclosed in a May 2009 filing that he owned Red Rock stock valued at less than $1,000.

Securities and Exchange Commission filings list Durham as a shareholder in the struggling movie-marketing firm, which shares headquarters space and has a business partnership with National Lampoon Inc., where Durham serves as CEO.

Brizzi’s connections with Durham, his biggest campaign contributor, have become a political headache for the 41-year-old prosecutor in recent weeks. He acknowledged last month that he had agreed to serve on the board of Durham’s Fair Finance Co. but changed his mind after learning IBJ was going to publish an investigative story questioning its business practices.

The IBJ story reported that, since Durham bought Fair Finance from Donald Fair in 2002, he had used it almost like a personal bank to fund a range of business interests, some of them unsuccessful. The story noted that he and related parties owed Fair more than $168 million.

Financial disclosure statement filed with the state show Brizzi also is an investor in CLST Holdings Inc., a former cell-phone distributor where Durham has been a major shareholder since 2005 and currently serves as chairman.

Brizzi hasn’t said how he came to invest in the obscure Texas company. In a message to supporters that he posted on his Facebook page this week, Brizzi said: “I began buying stock in [CLST] … in 2005 after discussing the investment, as well as other companies, with friends and financial advisors as part of my overall investment planning.”

In the message, Brizzi also said, “To the best of my knowledge, there are no other businesses, stocks, or investments in which Durham and I both have an interest.”

However, Brizzi disclosed the Red Rock investment in a U.S. House of Representatives financial disclosure statement he submitted six months ago. The filing was required because Brizzi in March filed a statement of candidacy for the Fifth Congressional District, a step he took even though he hadn’t decided whether to run.

Asked about the Red Rock investment this morning, Brizzi said, “To the best of my knowledge, I do not own it.” IBJ e-mailed him a copy of the disclosure report, but he did not immediately respond.

Fair, CLST, National Lampoon and Red Rock all have received scrutiny by federal investigators recently. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis filed court papers last month alleging that Fair had operated like a Ponzi scheme, using money raised by selling investment certificates to Ohio residents to pay earlier rounds of investors.

CLST, meanwhile, received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 24. seeking a mountain of information, including documentation related to CLST’s purchase of customer-finance contracts from Fair early this year.

National Lampoon has been operating under a cloud since last December, when a grand jury indicted then-CEO Dan Laikin on charges he tried to manipulate the price of the company’s stock.

Laikin, who teamed with Durham and other local investors to purchase control of National Lampoon nearly a decade ago, pleaded guilty on one felony count in September and is awaiting sentencing.

The plea deal filed that month says “the government agrees that it will not bring any criminal charges against the defendant for conduct relating to any attempt to manipulate the stock price of Red Rock Picture Holdings Inc. that preceded the date of the agreement.”

Brizzi’s federal disclosure statement listed CLST and Red Rock as the only individual stocks he owned at the time he submitted the filing. The CLST stock was valued at less than $15,000. The filing listed a hodgepodge of mutual funds, all valued at less than $15,000.

Brizzi earns about $130,000 a year as prosecutor and doesn’t have extensive assets. The federal filing shows he owes between $100,000 and $250,000 on a loan he took out to buy his ownership interest in the downtown restaurant Harry & Izzy’s. The filing shows he still is paying off student loans.