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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA federal judge is weighing whether to unseal search-warrant documents related to the federal investigation of businessman
Tim Durham and Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance Co. following a hearing Thursday in Youngstown, Ohio.
Judge George
J. Limbert heard arguments from attorneys on both sides of the issue but did not make a ruling, according to the Akron
Beacon Journal.
The Beacon Journal and Indianapolis Star launched the legal battle in mid-December,
several weeks after FBI agents raided Durham’s Indianapolis office and Fair’s headquarters. Indianapolis Business
Journal and the Wall Street Journal joined the effort in early January.
The newspapers contend that
the records should be unsealed in part because of intense community and national interest. In court Thursday, a representative
of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis argued that unsealing search warrants and FBI affidavits could damage
the federal government’s ongoing investigation, the Beacon Journal reported.
The probe has been public
since the Nov. 24 raids. Court papers filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that day allege Fair operated as a Ponzi scheme,
using money from new investors to pay what it owed prior investors.
The raids occurred one month after IBJ
published an investigative story that raised questions about whether Fair Finance had the financial wherewithal to repay
Ohio investors who had purchased nearly $200 million in investment certificates.
Read the Beacon Journal story here.
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