EFTA01073675.pdf

Page 1 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE 15TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA Complex Litigation, Fla. R. Civ. Pro.1201 CASE NO. 50 2009CA040800XXXXMB AG JEFFREY EPSTEIN, Plaintiff, ORIGINAL vs. SCOTT ROTHSTEIN, individually, BRADLEY J. EDWARDS, individually, and ., individually, Defendants. DEPOSITION OF DEAN RUSSELL KRETSCHMAR Taken on Behalf of the Plaintiff DATE TAKEN: Friday, February 11, 2011 TIME: 9:10 AM - 11:40 AM PLACE: Fowler White Burnett, P.A. One Financial Plaza - 21st Floor 100 Southeast 3rd Avenue Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394 Examination of the witness taken before: Lee Lynott, Certified Merit Reporter Registered Professional Reporter Certified Shorthand Reporter, Florida Hi-Tech/United Reporting, Inc. 1218 SE 3rd Avenue Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316 United Reporting. Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073675  Page 2 APPEARANCE FOR THE PLAINTIFF: FOWLER WHITE BURNETT, P.A. BY: SUSAN APRIL, ESQUIRE LILLY SANCHEZ, ESQUIRE One Financial Plaza - 21st Floor 100 Southeast 3rd Avenue Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33394 APPEARANCE FOR THE DEFENDANT BRADLEY EDWARDS: SEARCY DENNEY SCAROLA BARNHART & SHIPLEY BY: WILLIAM KING, ESQUIRE 2139 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard West Palm Beach, Florida 33409 11 12 APPEARANCE FOR THE WITNESS DEAN KRETSCHMAR: 13 CONRAD & SCHERER BY: MAXINE K. STREETER, ESQUIRE 14 633 South Federal Highway Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073676  Page 3 1 2 INDEX 3 4 Deposition of Dean Kretschmar: Page No. 5 Direct Examination by Mrs. April 4 6 Certificate of Oath 77 7 Certificate of Reporter 78 8 Read and Sign Letter to Witness 79 9 Errata Sheet (to be forwarded upon execution) 80 * * * 10 11 12 PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT INDEX 13 No. Description Page No. 14 ***** NONE ***** 15 16 DEFENDANT'S EXHIBIT INDEX 17 No. Description Page No. 18 ***** NONE ***** 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073677  Page 4 1 THEREUPON, 2 * * * 3 DEAN RUSSELL KRETSCHMAR 4 A witness of lawful age, having been called, was first duly 5 sworn by the undersigned Notary Public. 6 THE WITNESS: Yes. 7 DIRECT EXAMINATION 8 BY MRS. APRIL: 9 Q. Sir, would you say your full name. 10 A. Dean Russell Kretschmar. Last name is 11 K-r-e-t-s-c-h-m-a-r. 12 Q. Where do you live? 13 A. I live here in Fort Lauderdale. 14 Q. And what's your address; business or home, either? 15 MRS. STREETER: Can we do this off the record? 16 MRS. APRIL: Sure. 17 MRS. STREETER: Go ahead. 18 (WHEREUPON, the answer was provided 19 off-the-record). 20 BY MRS. APRIL: 21 Q. Did you receive a subpoena to be here today, do you 22 know if you did? 23 A. Yes, I did. 24 Q. And are you represented by counsel today? 25 A. Yes. United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073678  Page 5 1 Q. And is that Mrs. Streeter? 2 A. Yes. 3 Q. Mr. Kretschmar, I heard you say before you were 4 sworn in and we went on the record that you hadn't been 5 deposed before. I'm Susan April, we met out in the hallway. 6 I represent a plaintiff in a lawsuit and that plaintiff is 7 named Jeffrey Epstein. And Lilly Sanchez, who is with me 8 today, is also from Fowler, White, Burnett, who represents Mr. Epstein. And you met Mr. King. 10 You will be asked questions by plaintiff's lawyer 11 and if the defendant's lawyer wants to ask questions, that's 12 certainly his prerogative. We ask you to let us know if you 13 need something restated or repeated; the court reporter can 14 read things back. If you need to stop just say you need to 15 stop, you'd like to take a break. 16 As I think you got some tea, if you want anything 17 else or you want to pause to get something, let us know. 18 Okay? 19 A. Do I just say, Can we pause? 20 Q. Yes. You can say, Can we stop. 21 A. Do I raise my hand like we're in school. 22 Q. The only thing I would ask is that if you're in the 23 middle of an answer to a question or if there is a question 24 pending before you break to go to the restroom or anything 25 that you finish that answer so that we're not broke in United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073679  Page 6 1 sequence. 2 A. Understood. 3 Q. One other thing that witnesses sometime forget, 4 lawyers too, is that because everything you say is being 5 typed and the court reporter can only type one person at a 6 time, let the lawyer who is asking you a question finish 7 their complete question if you're able to determine the 8 question is over before you answer, because there is a 9 tendency with some people, they think they know the answer so 10 they say it before the question is completed and that makes 11 the typed record confusing. Okay? 12 If you need anything else, let us know. Okay? 13 A. Okay. 14 Q. Did you know that there was a lawsuit pending that 15 Jeffrey Epstein had filed against Scott Rothstein and Bradley 16 Edwards and someone named prior to being subpoenaed in 17 this case? 18 A. No. 19 Q. Are you currently a party in any lawsuit against 20 Scott Rothstein and others? 21 A. Yes. 22 Q. I understand you're represented by counsel and I 23 assume that you've been advised that you do not have to 24 disclose anything that was said between you and your lawyers. 25 So if I ask you a question, I'm not asking you to breach that United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073680  Page 7 1 confidence. So I'm trying to ask questions that don't go 2 there, all right? If you have any difficulty with it or you 3 want it restated, please let me know. 4 What's the nature of the lawsuit that you're 5 currently in? 6 A. The nature of the lawsuit is: We were defrauded on 7 investments into Scott Rothstein's law firms for confidential 8 settlements. 9 Q. When you say we were defrauded, who do you mean, as 10 best you can describe it? 11 A. Myself, my family, and there were others. 12 Q. And again, in your own words, how were you 13 defrauded? 14 A. We were sold on the fact that the confidential 15 settlements were real cases, they weren't typical court 16 cases. Many of these settlements were confidential in the 17 nature that they were being handled by two attorneys, you 18 know, outside of having to go to court. 19 And based on various reasons and the plaintiffs 20 wanted a settlement for whatever they were wronged on, and 21 those settlements were timed out over time and, basically, we 22 were funding the plaintiff getting their money then versus 23 waiting for that timed period to end. 24 Q. How did you hear about this investment in the first 25 place? United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073681  Page 8 1 A. Barry Bekkedam. 2 Q. And it's Bekkedam? 3 A. Yeah, Barry Bekkedam. I could give it a crack to 4 start off. 5 Q. Don't worry about spelling anyone's name. I'm 6 happy with phonetics and after we're done, you can clarify. 7 A. His firm is Ballamor Capital Management. 8 Q. And how do you know Barry Bekkedam? 9 A. He is dating, used to be a friend of mine, Diane 10 Barnett. 11 Q. So are you saying you met him sort of through 12 social circles? 13 A. Yeah. 14 Q. When you say Diane Barnett used to be a friend, is 15 she no longer a friend of yours? 16 A. No. 17 Q. Did you have a falling-out? 18 A. Yeah, you could say this whole situation has put a 19 bit of a strain on 20 Q. Does Diane Barnett live in Florida? 21 A. Yes. 22 Q. In Fort Lauderdale? 23 A. Yes. 24 Q. Is she also in the, is she a financial advisor or 25 investment counselor? United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073682  Page 9 1 A. No, she has a real estate license. She worked for 2 the Galleria of Fine Homes I think. 3 Q. So you met Barry through Diane? 4 A. Uh-huh (affirmative response). 5 Q. And where did you meet him? 6 A. We met out socially. Diane invited me out to have 7 a drink. She wanted me to meet the gentleman that she was involved with. 9 Q• And is that where you got to talking about the 10 business he was in? 11 A. He wasn't, well, his business in the sense of as a 12 money manager, but it wasn't the first meeting that I learned 13 about this. It was several meetings after and he also 14 pitched my stepfather. 15 Q. When you met Barry was it here in Florida? 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. And do you know what year that was? 18 A. End of '09. Third, probably Fourth Quarter 19 of '09. 20 Q. Again, I understand you probably won't remember 21 every detail so my questions are directed to as best you can 22 recall. 23 A. Sure. 24 Q. What do you recall Barry telling you about the 25 investment when you first -- when he first spoke to you about United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073683  Page 10 1 it, the investment that led to you being in a lawsuit against 2 Scott Rothstein and others? 3 A. He told me his firm had done a lot of the due 4 diligence, was still in the process of finishing due 5 diligence, but he was working closely with George Levin and 6 George Levin's team in doing the background due diligence and 7 that George Levin personally had 600 million into this 8 investment. And that over the past five years there hasn't 9 been any issues, no late payments, everything has been on 10 time. 11 He disclosed that George had one discrepancy on his 12 background, which was a kit car company that George owned, 13 and there was something of some of the customers felt 14 defrauded and the cars came out late or something and there 15 was a court case about it. It all ended up being settled, 16 but that was something of, you know, you could find out 17 through your own research that something negative happened. 18 And I've been in business enough that sometimes things 19 happen; customers are, you know, upset and it can be, you 20 know, twisted. 21 So, through Barry explaining - through his due 22 diligence and that his teams had done all of this extensive 23 research and looked at some of the books with Levin's company 24 with the investment, also, meeting with Scott Rothstein and 25 understanding how the investments are confidential in nature, United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073684  Page 11 1 that there was a third -party verifier, who was Mike 2 Szafranski, that a hedge fund out of New York had requested 3 when they made their investments years before he was put in 4 charge of being an outside verifier that the funds were in 5 there - that it gave me, you know, some confidence about the 6 investment. 7 Q. Let me back you up a little bit. Do you remember 8 when Barry first told you about this investment before he 9 started talking about due diligence, how did it come up? 10 mean, were you having dinner? Were you at someone's house? 11 Where were you? 12 A. I don't remember. 13 Q. Did he just out of nowhere say, I have an 14 investment I want to talk to you about? 15 A. No. I mean, if somebody is a money manager, you 16 know, an investment advisor as he is in a sense of a 17 balanced-portfolio -type advisor - meaning that he would put 18 your monies in several different low risks to, you know, if 19 you want to do some things that are a little bit more of what 20 would be termed a high risk - I was curious of things that he 21 saw in the market. And he was doing middle market financing 22 as the leverage in banks and so forth were not lending. You 23 know, there's a lot of businesses that just needed cash flow 24 and they couldn't get it from the bank. 25 So, it was through conversations that he didn't United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073685  Page 12 1 just bring this one up, he had others that he was, you know, 2 explaining to me. So we, you know, in a sense it was normal 3 that we talked some shop. 4 Q. When he told you about the investment, what did he 5 call the investment? I mean, we've been calling it the 6 investment. Did he say it's the Rothstein investment? 7 A. Banyon Income Fund. 8 Q. Banyon Income Fund. Is that the fund that George 9 Levin was running? 10 A. Yes. 11 Q. And when he first mentioned it to you, when Barry 12 first mentioned it to you, who else was present? 13 A. Diane Barnett. 14 Q. Anyone else? 15 A. No. 16 Q. So after Barry described this Banyon Income Fund to 17 you, what was the next thing you did, if anything, to invest 18 in it? 19 A. He was pitching my father and I didn't do anything. 20 I was in New York at the time working with a hedge fund, so 21 it wasn't until a little bit later that when my stepfather 22 and I talked and he had, you know, heard about it that I gave 23 it more interest. 24 Q. So you just said your father and your stepfather, 25 is that the same person? United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073686  Page 13 1 A. Yeah, same person. Sorry. 2 Q. What's his name? 3 A. Doug Von Allmen. 4 Q. Do you know how Barry came to know your stepfather? 5 A. Through Diane. Diane introduced Barry to all of 6 Fort Lauderdale. 7 Q. I see. When you say you were in New York working 8 at a hedge fund, was this like your job at the time or were 9 you up there exploring investments? 10 A. It was a job. I was looking to raise capital for a 11 hedge fund, so I was learning from them about their 12 strategies and what they were all about to be able to speak 13 intelligently to people, but the market had crashed. 14 Everybody's strategies were changing every day it seemed. 15 And it was around April of 2010 I said, you know what, 16 it's -- I'm not jumping into the market of investing -- 17 MRS. STREETER: April 2010? 18 MRS. APRIL: Let's get that timing right. 19 THE WITNESS: When did I make my investment? 20 BY MRS. APRIL: 21 Q• Let me see if this will -- I've got something with 22 a date on it. 23 Sir, the lawsuit that I referred to that I asked if 24 you were a party in -- 25 A. Uh-huh (affirmative response). United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073687  Page 14 1 Q. -- do you know if that was filed in November of 2 2009? I do have a copy of some pages. Do you happen to 3 know? 4 A. Off the top of my head per date, no. 5 Q. Well, I'm going to show you what is -- This doesn't 6 show you the file date. 7 MRS. SANCHEZ: That's the amended one. 8 BY MRS. APRIL: 9 Q. It is a 2210-page document, so I don't have it all 10 in front of me. So, let me just show you this and see if it 11 refreshes your memory. 12 Have you ever been a party in a lawsuit before? 13 A. No. 14 Q. I'm going to show you what we call the caption, 15 just the first page that has all the names of the parties of 16 this suit and it goes on to a second page, to see if that -- 17 And you can see it has a date stamp. And also, you'll see on 18 Page 2 it shows you it's not the original. 19 A. Uh-huh (affirmative response). 20 Q. The number of this case is 09-062943 (19). And I 21 don't know if there is any dispute and we have to torture the 22 witness here by asking him to figure it out. 23 MRS. APRIL: Can we all agree that it was filed in 24 2009? 25 MRS. STREETER: Yes. The record will speak for United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073688  Page 15 1 itself. 2 BY MRS. APRIL: 3 Q. Mr. Rretschmar, you said something earlier and I 4 think you may be off in time and I think your lawyer 5 recognized it. Do you remember if your knowledge of the 6 fraud you mentioned is essentially the same time that it 7 became publicly known that Scott Rothstein's firm had had a 8 crisis and was falling apart? 9 Do you remember hearing about that just from others 10 or in the news that the Rothstein, Rosenfeld & Adler firm was 11 in trouble? 12 A. Right. 13 MR. KING: Objection to form, it's compound. 14 BY MRS. APRIL: 15 Q. Do you remember when you heard something about the 16 firm? 17 A. Yes. 18 Q. Do you know about when that was? What time of 19 year? A season or a holiday or something like that? 20 A. Yeah, it was the end of October, like the 31st, 21 going into November. 22 Q. Of what year? 23 A. Had to be 2009. 24 Q. And do you know if you became a party in the 25 lawsuit that I just showed you the caption of? Let's call it United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073689  Page 16 1 for short, the first name is Razorback Funding, LLC. I was 2 going to call it the Razorback suit, if that's okay, versus 3 Scott Rothstein and a number of others? 4 A. Uh-huh (affirmative response). 5 Q. Do you know if you became a party in this suit soon 6 after you learned that the Rothstein firm had a problem? 7 A. Yes. 8 Q. So I want to go back and ask you if the dates are 9 correct in your previous answer. 10 When you first met Barry -- What did you say his 11 name was, Bekk I'm going to call him -- 12 MRS. STREETER: Bekkedam, B-e-k-k-e-d-a-m. 13 BY MRS. APRIL: 14 Q. When you first met Barry was it the year before 15 that or was it just a month -- 16 A. It would be the end of '08. 17 Q. Thank you. 18 A. And when I left the hedge fund it would have beer., 19 you know, March or April of '09. 20 MRS. STREETER: Just answer her questions. 21 BY MRS. APRIL: 22 Q. And the hedge fund that you left was called what? 23 A. WR Capital Management. 24 Q. So do you know when you or your stepfather first 25 put any money into Banyon Capital, roughly? United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073690  Page 17 1 A. May of 2009. 2 Q. And this is after you left WR Capital Management. 3 At that time were you employed? 4 A. I don't understand. 5 Q. In the Spring of 2009 were you working someplace? 6 A. No. 7 Q. You were just doing your own investments? 8 A. Yeah. 9 Q. So let me go back to that. The year is -- After 10 your initial investment in Banyon Capital was it your 3.] personal investment or was it made through some entity? 12 A. I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question? 13 Q. When you first invested in Banyon -- 14 MRS. STREETER: Income Fund. 15 MRS. APRIL: Thank you. 16 Q. -- (continuing) Income Fund, was it a personal 17 investment of Dean Kretschmar or did you invest through some 18 entity that you formed? Do you know what I mean? 19 A. Yes, I understand what you're asking. It's either 20 one or the other. 21 Q. If you're not sure, you can tell me that. 22 A. I'm not sure. It could have been my Living Trust 23 or me, personally. 24 Q. After April or May of 2009 did you make any further 2.5 investment into any opportunity offered by Scott Rothstein or United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073691  Page 18 1 his firm? 2 A. Yes. 3 Q. Can you tell me what that was? 4 A. That was in Razorback. 5 Q. And when was that, if you know? 6 A. That was in July. 7 Q. And -- 8 MRS. STREETER: Counsel, are you asking when he 9 made the investment or when he first heard about it? 10 MRS. APRIL: Well, I'm going to ask him the second 11 question, but I had asked him when he made the 12 investment, actually, put money into it. 13 MRS. STREETER: If you're not sure of the dates 14 A. I know when I made my first investment, it was 15 June. It was early June, 1st or 2nd. 16 Q. I'm not trying to trip you up with these dates. 17 I'm just trying to get a time frame generally. 18 So, let me ask you this: When did you -- what is 19 Razorback? 20 A. What is Razorback? 21 Q. Yeah. Other than it's a plaintiff on the lawsuit 22 that we talked about, I mean, is it a company? 23 THE WITNESS: Can I speak to you outside? 24 MRS. STREETER: Yes. 25 (WHEREUPON, an off-the-record discussion was had). United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073692  Page 19 1 MRS. STREETER: I just want to put on the record 2 that Mr. Kretschmar is here to answer questions about 3 what happened with regard to the Epstein litigation and 4 the other litigation. The Razorback litigation is an 5 ongoing, pending litigation and we ask that you 6 refrain from getting into any of those specific details 7 regarding investments that are not relevant and are not 8 reasonably calculated to lead to any evidence in your 9 case in particular. If you could get to this particular 10 issue. 11 MRS. APRIL: I'll try. 12 (WHEREUPON, an off-the-record discussion was had). 13 MRS. APRIL: I have in case anybody wants to refer 14 to them, including me, some calendars. Sometimes it 15 makes it a little easier to know when things happened. 16 BY MRS. APRIL: 17 Q. So you invested in something called Razorback? 18 A. Uh-huh (affirmative response). 19 Q. We established that, right. And was Razorback's 20 investment also into the settlements or the kind of 21 settlements you described a little bit earlier with 22 Rothstein? 23 A. Yes. 24 Q. Did you invest after the investment in Razorback 25 any other times with Scott Rothstein in one of these United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073693  Page 20 1 settlement funds? 2 MR. KING: Objection. Form. Vague. 3 BY MRS. APRIL: 4 Q. Did you ever make any other investment offered by 5 Scott Rothstein after the Razorback? 6 A. No. 7 Q. Did you ever meet Scott Rothstein? 8 A. Yes. 9 Q. Do you know when you first met him? 10 A. At a Boys and Girls Club fundraiser. It was the 11 Boca Resort. It's the car fundraiser where they have all the 12 cars. I forget what it's called. 13 Q. Do you know what year it was approximately? 14 Probably 2008. 15 Q. Did you have any substantive conversation with him 16 at that time -- 17 A. Nothing. 18 Q. -- about business or anything? 19 A. No. 20 Q. Was there ever a time where you met with Mr. 21 Rothstein and talked about business? 22 A. No. 23 Q. Was there ever a time after the Boca event for the 24 Boys and Girls Club that you met Scott Rothstein? 25 A. Not before the investment. United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073694  Page 21 1 Q. Okay. Let's talk about then the time of the 2 investment. Did you have any face-to-face meetings with 3 Scott Rothstein in 2009? 4 A. Yes. 5 Q. Can you describe as best as you can recall the 6 first -- Was there more than one of those? 7 A. Yes. 8 Q. Can you describe to the best of your ability your 9 first face-to-face business meeting with Rothstein about the 10 investment? 11 A. I was there. My father was there. Barry Bekkedam 12 was there. Barry Bekkedam and Ballamor Capital, some of his 13 people were there. George Levin was there. Frank Preve was 14 there. A.J. DiScala was there. 15 Q. Where is there? 16 A. And Scott Rothstein's personal office in his 17 firm. 18 Q. Had you ever been in his firm's offices before? 19 A. No. 20 Q. Was that over here on Las Olas, an office building? 21 A. Yes. 22 Q. And were there any other persons present that you 23 can remember? 24 A. (No response). 25 Q. Let me rephrase that. Even if you can't remember United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073695  Page 22 1 their names, do you think there were other persons in the 2 room? 3 A. Yeah. 4 Q. Can you describe the office to me? In other words, 5 was it a conference roam like we're in today or something 6 different? 7 A. It was a combination office and conference room. 8 It had a large sectional couch, a lot of pictures of Scott 9 with various celebrities, to governors, to presidents. It 10 was elaborate, very nicely built-out office. 11 Was there also a conference table or -- 12 A. Yes. 13 Q. And was it about as big as the one we're at today 14 which looks like it holds about 12 chairs? 15 A. Yes. 16 Q. Was it pretty much filled? 17 A. Yes. 18 Q. What month was that, if you know? 19 A. I don't recall. 20 Q. Let me go back to that later and build to that. 21 How did you happen to be there that day, were you invited by 22 Mr. Rothstein? 23 A. Yes. 24 Q. And was this morning, lunch time, afternoon, did 25 you have a meal or anything? United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073696  Page 23 1 A. I don't, I don't recall. 2 Q. Was this meeting in the Fall of 2009? Was it 3 football season? 4 A. Yes. 5 Q. Did some of the individuals who were there, like 6 Barry, travel from out of state to come to the meeting? 7 A. Yes. 8 Q. Did you spend any time with Barry prior to this 9 meeting, social or business? 10 A. I don't remember. 11 Q. You said Barry and Ballamor Capital, that's his 12 firm, right? 13 A. Yes. 14 Q. Do you remember if he was accompanied by some other 15 individuals from his group? 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. Do you know their names, any? 18 A. Larry Rovin. 19 Q. Is that Rovin? 20 A. Rovin, R-o-v-i-n. I think he's an attorney 21 there. 22 Q. Anybody else? 23 A. Yes, but I don't remember the names. 24 Q. And you don't remember if you, like, went out with 25 that group to dinner or a ball game or on a boat or anything United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073697  Page 24 1 during that visit? 2 A. No, we didn't. We didn't do that. 3 Q• Did you ever go to a Jets/Dolphins game with any of 4 these folks? 5 A. Uh-huh (affirmative response). Yes. 6 Q. Do you know when that was, I mean, was it in this 7 same season? 8 A. Yes. 9 Q• Do you know if during that week you had any 10 conference or meeting with Rothstein? 11 A. Yes. 12 Q. So not to confuse the issue: Do you know if you 13 had already met with Scott Rothstein and some other 14 individuals prior to that meeting? 15 MR. KING: Objection to form. Vague. 16 BY MRS. APRIL: 17 Q. You follow what I'm saying? I can rephrase it. 18 A. Rephrase it. 19 Q. Is it accurate to say you had at least two 20 face-to-face meetings where Scott Rothstein was present? 21 A. Before the Jets game? 22 Q. Ever? At any time? 23 A. Yes, that's accurate. 24 Q. And was one of those before the Jets game? 25 A. Yes. United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073698  Page 25 1 Q. And was one after the Jets game? 2 A. Yes. 3 Q. Do you know if it was soon after, the day after? 4 A. Yeah, it was the day after. 5 Q. Who won the game, do you know? 6 A. I think the Dolphins. 7 Q. So, when you first went to Scott Rothstein's office 8 what was your understanding of the reason you were going 9 there? 10 MR. KING: Is this the first time? 11 MRS. APRIL: The first time. 12 A. We were going to talk more about the confidential 13 settlements. 14 Q. And this was the first time that you heard Scott 15 Rothstein discussing the confidential settlements? 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. To the bast of your recollection, what did he say, 18 in substance? I don't mean word for word. 19 A. I can generalize, but I don't remember word for 20 word what was really talked about, you know, specifics. I 21 mean, it was 22 Q. Generalized is fine. 23 MRS. STREETER: I don't want you to guess. 24 BY MRS. APRIL: 25 Q. In other words, did Scott, did he tell you United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073699  Page 26 1 something about the confidential settlements and the process? 2 A. Yes, but it would be more specific to a meeting. 3 The one meeting we had where Barry Bekkedam and George were 4 there it was more of the foundation of: How Barry got there, 5 how George, you know, has been investing, nothing ever 6 tripped up, how we were going to come in and help George, we were going to get a 15 percent return. 8 You know, the meeting after the Jets game, there 9 was a gentleman that flew in to meet Scott who was Thane 10 Ritchey. He was a friend of A.J. DiScala's. He flew in. 11 Scott had invited us to the game, A.J. and I, and we went to 12 the football game. And the next day, it was Thane Ritchey, 13 Michael Legamaro of Morgan, Lewis, Bockius he had flown in 14 that Tuesday morning and A.J. DiScala. 15 Scott at this time was talking about a big case 16 that involved a defendant that had a very large sum of money 17 and had had sex with underaged girls. And he had two girls. 18 Actually, he said it was one at first, very large settlement. 19 And I think the settlement was 18 million. 20 And so that conversation went into with Thane 21 Ritchey, A.J. DiScala and myself and Morgan, Lewis -- Michael 22 Legamaro from Morgan, Lewis to explain to Michael, who A.J. 23 and I soon after hired him to do, you know, the due 24 diligence, you know. 25 Q. Had you ever met Mr. Legamaro before that day? United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073700  Page 27 1 A. No. 2 Q. But you understood him to be a lawyer for Thane 3 Ritchey? 4 A. Yes. 5 Q. And at that meeting -- Let me make sure I 6 understand who was there. 7 Mr. Legamaro was there, Scott Rothstein was there, 8 Thane Ritchey, A.J. DiScala and you? 9 A. Uh-huh (affirmative response). Yes. 10 Q. Was there anybody else there from Scott Rothstein's 11 firm for any part of the meeting? 12 A. No. 13 Q. At that meeting was it all talk? Let me rephrase 14 that. Was there just discussion or was there an examination 15 of any documents or materials? 16 A. No. 17 Q. In the room with you, were you in the same room 18 that you had been in 19 A. Yes. 20 Q. -- the other time with the larger group? 21 A. Yes. 22 Q. Did Scott at that time name the individual that he 23 was referring to who had sex with underaged girls and one 24 case had been settled? 25 A. No. United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073701  Page 28 1 Q. Did you know from the description who he had been 2 talking about? 3 A. No, I had no idea. 4 Q. And did Mk. Legamaro ask questions of Scott 5 Rothstein about the cases? 6 A. Yes. 7 Q• And at that meeting do you know how long it lasted? 8 And I don't mean exactly, but was it an hour, was it all day? 9 Do you know? 10 A. A couple hours. 11 Q. And I believe you said a few minutes ago after that 12 you decided to hire Michael Legamaro, I'm not sure if that's 13 the word you used, retained him? 14 A. Yes, we retained him. 15 Q. Again, who is we in that? 16 A. A.J. DiScala. 17 Q. What did you retain him for? 18 A. To represent Clockwork. 19 Q. Now, again, your lawyer has asked and I'm trying to 20 respect her wishes and not go into too much about what these 21 entities are, but you mentioned Clockwork. What is Clockwork 22 because I had not heard of them before? Are they another 23 fund? 24 A. (No response). 25 Q. Let me rephrase it, because I'm not trying to make United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073702  Page 29 1 your life difficult. Was Clockwork an existing entity at the 2 time that you engaged Mr. Legamaro, whatever it is? I'm not 3 even asking you what it is, but did it exist or do you know? 4 A. I think that's left to be -- You know, it's our 5 question: Was it or wasn't it? 6 Q. All right. Do you know if you had any formal 7 paperwork, an engagement letter signed with Mr. Legamaro? 8 A. I don't know. 9 Q. Do you know if you paid Mr. Legamaro any advanced 10 retainer fees? 11 A. Yes. 12 Q. And did he represent you after that? 13 A. Yes. 14 Q. And was there ever any time after that that you, 15 again, went to Scott Rothstein's office? 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. Can you tell me about when it was or how much time 18 elapsed before you went back? 19 A. I think it was the following week. 20 Q. Let me just go back a little, because getting dates 21 down is sometimes important. The ball game, you went to the 22 Jets/Dolphins game, was that a Monday night game or Sunday 23 night? 24 A. Monday night. 25 Q. Was it October of 2009? United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073703  Page 30 1 A. Oh-huh (affirmative response). 2 Q• So it looks to me like there was October 5, 12, 3 19th and 26th were all Mondays. So just for frame of 4 reference one of those - and I guess we could check 5 independently to find out when there was a ball game - one of 6 those, you went the next day and that's the first time you 7 met Michael Legamaro at Scott's office, right? 8 A. Yes. 9 Q. Did you actually meet him for the first time in the 10 office or did you convene somewhere else first? 1.1 A. No, I think I met him in the office. 12 Q. And did he bring any other attorneys or paralegals 13 assistants with him? 14 A. No. 15 Q. So then you and A.J. engage him and then you say 16 there's another meeting some days later? 17 A. Michael came back down, Michael Legamaro came back 18 down and went to Scott's office with A.J. 19 Q. And do you know the purpose of that visit? 2C A. Michael was doing due diligence on RRA, on 21 Rothstein's firm, and wanted to spend more time with Scott 22 Rothstein understanding these investments. 23 Q. Were you there at all? 24 A. No, not that meeting. 25 Q. Did A.J. discuss with you what occurred at that United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073704  Page 31 1 meeting? 2 A. In general, he discussed that Michael and Scott 3 met. They got along. Michael understands the nature of the 4 settlements. Everything was going well. Michael had a lot 5 of questions for him and was continuing to investigate and do 6 due diligence on the investments of RRA, et cetera. 7 Basically, it was going well. 8 Q. Do you know if you saw Michael Legamaro at all 9 during that trip he made down here? 10 A. I don't remember. 11 Q. Did you see A.J.? 12 A. Yes. 13 Q. Do you know if, did A.J. say whether Mr. Legamaro 14 in that visit to the Scott Rothstein office looked at any 15 documents and/or saw any materials? 16 A. I don't remember. 17 Q. Was there any time after that that you yourself, 18 again, went to Rothstein's office? 19 A. Yes. 20 Q. And do you know approximately what date or how much 21 time elapsed from this meeting you just described that you 22 didn't go to? 23 A. I think a week. 24 Q• So about a week later you go to Rothstein's office? 25 A. Uh-huh (affirmative response). United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073705  Page 32 1 Q. And who else is there? 2 A. A.J. DiScala, Michael Legamaro. 3 Q. Anyone else. Thane Ritchey there? 4 A. No. 5 Q. Was Thane Ritchey -- Okay, he wasn't there. 6 So just the four of you were at that meeting? 7 A. As I recall. 8 Q. And what occurred at that meeting? 9 A. Scott was trying to close this deal which was the 3.0 first case. He then told us that the sister of this girl was 11 also involved with this client as well as at this point he 12 told us several girls now, once the first girl went forward 13 and started working with him, he was getting calls from other 14 girls saying that I, too, was, you know, involved with this 15 client. And so -- 16 Q. When you say the client, you mean the law firm -- 17 A. I'm sorry, the defendant. And so Scott was all 18 fired up saying, We've gotta get the first one. We've got a 19 total of 18, you know, girls and now we've got the first one 20 that we need to close. But now the sister, you know, he can 21 get the sister negotiated and taken care of. 22 At this point it was -- we were -- I'm trying to 23 understand the whole deal. It was a large sum of money. At 24 this point we were calling it bullshit. How can one person 25 get a settlement for 18 million. United Reporting, Inc. 954-525-2221 EFTA01073706  Page 33 1 So Scott at this point said, Okay, you guys are 2 here. I'm going to trust you. I'm going to open the case. 3 I'm going to bring it down and I'll let you see who this 4 person is. 5 At this point Thane was also, you're talking about 6 maybe a two-week time period of, you know, Thane was talking 7 about making a $5 million investment. So Michael was already 8 in the process of doing his due diligence and things that he 9 needed to do. So Scott called for the evidence of who this 10 person was. We were in Scott's office, his personal office 11 in RRA, and 10, 15 minutes later in walks our former Sheriff 12 Ken Jenne with another gentleman, I didn't know who he was, 13 bringing in several boxes which ended to be I think about 14 19. 15 Q. Were the boxes marked or numbered? 16 Uh 17 Q. You know sometimes boxes say 1 of 10, 2 of 10? I 18 mean, any numbering like that? 19 I don't remember. 20 Q. So Mr. Jenne walks in with someone else with the 21 boxes and what does he do? 22 A. They start bringing all the boxes and they start 23 laying them -- You know, as you walk in th