The former owner of Akron-based Fair Finance says he feels “terrible” that people lost more than $200 million in his venture, but that his family lost out, too.

Tim Durham took the stand today in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, where he’s to be sentenced this afternoon on fraud and conspiracy charges. The financier was convicted of using the reputation of the decades-old Fair Finance to run a Ponzi scheme that sucked in thousands of investors, including many in Ohio's Amish community.

More than a thousand of the investors wrote to the judge who is sentencing Durham today, and several took the stand to testify as well.

Durham and two co-defendants used the money to buy mansions, classic cars and other luxury items and to keep other Durham companies, including National Lampoon, afloat.

He has said the bad economy sank his businesses, and that he never meant to defaud anyone.