INDIANAPOLIS - A defense attorney is protesting a recommended 225-year prison sentence for an Indiana financier convicted of swindling some $200 million from investors.

   The federal pre-sentencing report for Tim Durham isn't public, but his attorney has filed a response calling the proposed sentence "absurd."

   The Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis Business Journal report the attorney also argues that federal authorities caused some of the financial losses with the 2009 raid of Fair Finance's headquarters in Akron, Ohio, and Durham's Indianapolis office.

   Durham and two business associates were convicted in June on wire fraud charges. A federal judge in Indianapolis is scheduled to sentence them Nov. 30.

   The three were accused of looting Fair Finance to buy mansions, classic cars and other luxury items, and to prop up Durham's other failing businesses.