Judge to determine Durham's fate

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Three years ago, the FBI raided the downtown Indianapolis offices of local businessman Tim Durham. Friday, Durham could be sentenced to hundreds of years in prison. 

Once, Durham looked at the world from a window on the Hollywood Hills. Now, he finds himself facing life in prison. 

His attorney John Tompkins told 24-hour News 8 the day after Durham's conviction on all 12 counts against him - including wire and securities fraud - that he would appeal the verdict. 

"I'm disappointed that we - that I - was not more effective in communicating our position to the jury," Tompkins said. 

• CONTINUING COVERAGE | Track the ups and downs of the Durham case

Durham had a simple goal that drove his schemes.

"At the end of the day, when I breathe my last breath, I'd like to be worth more than anyone else in the world," he told 24-Hour News 8 back in 2004. 

That quest seemed to work for a while. Durham had a mansion on Geist Reservoir in Indianapolis, a mansion in Miami, a 100-foot yacht, a rental home that cost him more than $20,000 a month in the Hollywood Hills and another that he owned only a mile away.

But as I-Team 8 documented , Durham left behind unpaid mortgages and taxes. And prosecutors claimed he used his purchase of Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance as his personal piggy bank to pay for the lavish lifestyle, eventually leaving more than 5,000 investors out more than $200 million. 

Durham, along with business partner James Cochran and Rick Snow, Fair Finance's Chief Financial Officer were all convicted on felony charges in June. Durham faces 225 years in prison, Cochran 145 years and Snow 85 years. 

Tompkins has filed papers with the court asking for a sentence of five years, with two of those years on home detention.

Cochran and Snow also filed with the court asking for reduced sentences but didn't request a specific length of time. 

The sentencing hearing for Durham, Cochran and Snow begins at 9 a.m. Friday in Federal Court in downtown Indianapolis.