Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi broke his silence about his “friend” businessman and multi-millionaire Tim Durham. In an exclusive interview with WISH-TV/Channel 8’s Gene Rodriguez, Brizzi answered some questions, but left a lot unsaid. Afternoons with Amos will have more about this controversy Tuesday, Dec 1st when we interview live Brian Williams, a local businessman who helped form Durham’s first company Obsidian Enterprises. Williams is also a prospective Democratic candidate for Mayor. The video and transcript of WISH-TV’s interview are below. Video Courtesy of WISH-TV/Channel 8. ©2009 WISH-TV
24-Hour News 8 reporter Gene Rodriguez: Let’s talk about Fair Financial. You made the decision first to be on the board then you reversed that decision. Clearly the FBI was investigating him. Can you explain the red flags and why you decided to remove yourself from the board?
Carl Brizzi: I never attended a board meeting, never received any compensation. Tim and I are friends and we made a decision that that was something that I wasn’t going to be involved in.
Gene: Now he ran your campaign and you traveled to the Super Bowl with him.
Carl Brizzi: He didn’t run my campaign….he was a my finance director.
Gene: You traveled a lot. What does it say about your decision making when now you are learning all of this about him and you did spend a lot of time with him?
Carl Brizzi: We spent almost two and a half million dollars in the 2006
campaign. It’s a lot of money. And uh, Tim’s a friend and he helped raise a good bit of money and also contributed a lot of money as well. And so we’ve spent a uh vast majority of the money that we raised prior ot 2006 on that campaign and it was a tough campaign as you remember. Both sides raised a considerable sum.
Gene: You concerned about where that money came from now, knowing that you already spent it?
Carl Brizzi: Well, I think it’s premature to uh judge. We didn’t take any money unlike another campaign recently where the candidate withdrew from the race. We didn’t receive any money from Fair Holdings or from Fair Financial.
Gene: However, what they are looking into is that he used those holdings as a personal bank account for some of his interests and some of his investments so arguably some of that money could have come from there and there’s just no paper trail for it.
Carl Brizzi: Well, I think that’s why we have to wait until the investigation is over before we jump to any conclusions about…you know…maybe that if, if that money did in fact come from other sources.
Gene: But you have to be concerned for your own political future, knowing what’s going on and how closely related you were to him.
Carl Brizzi: Tim’s a friend and I am sorry that this happened, uh, to him, and you know, Gene what do you do if a friend gets in trouble you just feel badly for them. I mean that’s kind of where I am at right now and we’re going to go about the business of putting the bad guys in jail.
Gene: Could you say that you are on the up and up and you weren’t involved in any of this knowingly or anything like that.
Carl Brizzi: Of course, that’s not even out there is it. No one is making those kinds of accusations. So, again we all have friends and um I feel badly for what has happened to him but look we’ve got to go about the business of prosecuting criminals and that’s where my focus is right now and this is obviously a distraction but we are going to press on.
