Mr. Berne directed me to accompany him in his vehicle to attend an interview at the Department of Securities Regulation in the summer of 1997. I thought I was there to aid the State in their investigation of a Ponzi scheme that started in Houston, TX. At no time was I informed by Berne or the state investigators that I was a target of a criminal investigation or that I was giving a statement against my interests. That statement was later used in a felony indictment against me in August of 1998.

Subsequent to the Augusta interview I was interviewed by the assistant U.S. Attorney and a FBI agent on a speaker phone from their Houston office. During the interview Berne was called out of the conference room to take a call and directed me to continue the interview in his absence which lasted approximately 20 minutes. This prompted the U.S. Attorney to question whether she should continue and I repeated Berne's instructions and she continued the interview, which was tape recorded.

In 1998 I took Berne to a Fee Arbitration hearing where he openly admitted that I went to Augusta at his direction and that this was his method in handling these cases. This was after telling David Van Dyke for weeks that I made him take me to Augusta for the interview. A lie that Berne proved himself. I did not prevail at the hearing.

In August of 2000 I became suspicious that Berne was working to protect his friend Peter DeTroy who referred me to him. I questioned Van Dyke about my suspicions and Van Dyke stated that Berne and DeTroy had been to the Ethics Committee recently for doing this and that he represented a client that had a similar claim against DeTroy and Berne and that I would possibly be the third such case that he had knowledge of this year.

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