INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge says a former Indiana financier doesn't have to pay to appeal his conviction for swindling investors out of more than $200 million.

U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson issued an order Thursday granting Timothy Durham's request to proceed with his case as an indigent.

Durham said last month that he had no money to file an appeal with the 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Chicago because his multimillion-dollar home is in foreclosure and his financial assets are tied up in bankruptcy proceedings of the companies he used to control.

The 50-year-old Durham was sentenced to 50 years in prison in November after a jury convicted him of securities fraud, conspiracy and 10 counts of wire fraud in the collapse of Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance.