Alleged Wife-Beating Suspect Goes on the Offense

Jim Cochran, the Chairman of Fair Finance, the Indianapolis company that allegedly duped and mismanaged $200 million from Ohio investors, is now trying to protect his reputation.

His partner and the CEO of Fair Finance, Timothy S. Durham, a big shot Rove Republican donor, has been saved from criminal prosecution by embattled U.S. Attorney Timothy M. Morrison of the Southern District of Indianapolis, another Rove Republican appointed by the Rove Bush Cheney Administration.

Cochran, who made headlines after being arrested for alleged domestic violence against his wife, (mug shot at left) has now gone on the offensive against Fair Finance's bankruptcy trustee.

The Indianapolis Business Journal reports:

 Cochran, who’s ensnared in that same criminal investigation, lets it fly in response to allegations by Brian Bash, Fair’s bankruptcy trustee, that he and other insiders duped the investors, a largely blue-collar lot who purchased unsecured notes with interest rates as high as 9.5 percent.

Bash “utterly fails to identify even a single alleged misrepresentation made by Mr. Cochran,” Cochran’s attorneys said in a filing. Bash relies on “vague and conclusory allegations ... apparently adopting an alchemist’s strategy that repeating the word misrepresentation enough times will magically transform these allegations into a fraud claim.”

Bash counters in a court filing that he provided plenty of particulars to beat back Cochran’s motion to dismiss, especially given that the discovery process, which will unearth additional information, hasn’t begun.