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1 had audio and/or video surveillance? We'll start with
2 audio.
3 A. I don't have a specific recollection of
4 every place I had video and audio, but it was in -- I
5 had it set up so that in all of the common areas,
6 including our shareholder's lounge, we had -- I had
7 audio and video capabilities.
8 Q. When you say "capabilities," does that mean
9 you didn't always turn it on or you just turned it on
10 when you felt like it?
11 A. I turned it on when I felt like it, when I
12 felt like seeing what was going on. I sometimes left
13 the screen up because I had four computer screens on
14 my desk, I sometimes left the screen on with the video
15 of the reception area and some other general areas.
16 But unless I wanted to see what was going on or listen
17 to what was going on, I didn't turn it on. It would
18 have been too distracting.
19 Q. Did the attorneys know that this
20 surveillance existed?
21 A. You can see it in the -- it wasn't hidden,
22 you can see it. There were globes up in the ceiling
23 all over the office.
24 Q. Did you have -- you said -- you didn't
25 answer this, you said you didn't recall. Did you have
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1 any surveillance in the conference rooms?
2 A. No.
3 Q. Other than the common areas you just went
4 over, in the hallways and the reception -- did you
5 have it in the hallways, is that a common -- do you
6 deem that a common area?
7 A. All the hallways pretty much with the
8 exception of a few blind spots, I can see all the
9 hallways.
10 Q. And this was on all three floors?
11 A. Yeah. For some reason I think we might
12 have taken some space on a fourth floor, but I could
13 be mistaken. But yes, on the three floors that we
14 actively had a significant amount of space on, I tried
15 to have surveillance on all the common areas of all
16 that space.
17 Q. And what floor was Mr. Edwards' office on?
18 A. I don't recall.
19 Q. Did you have the tort group all together or
20 was it divided up?
21 A. Except for Adler, Adler was on with -- near
22 me, down the hall from me. The rest of the group was
23 all together. I think they were on -- let's see.
24 There were people up on 22. I was on 16. He must
25 have been on the other floor that we were building
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1 out, because I remember building out space and I
2 remember Jaffe and all those guys moving into that
3 space.
4 Q. If you were building up that space, do you
5 recall when you put the surveillance in there?
6 A. It would have been while they were building
7 it out or shortly thereafter.
8 Q. During 2009 it seems that you hired lots of
9 former law enforcement people to work at the firm.
10 Why were they people you wanted to hire?
11 A. Severalfold. I had a significant amount of
12 illegal activity going on with various law enforcement
13 agencies throughout South Florida and hiring people
14 from former law enforcement assisted me in engendering
15 support and camaraderie with the law enforcement that
16 I was actually utilizing in illegal activities.
17 Q. So you are saying --
18 A. Secondarily, I wanted to have a very strong
19 investigative team, ultimately, to do both legitimate
20 and illegitimate things for the law firm, and hiring
21 former law enforcement was the best way to do that. I
22 was hoping to actually ultimately create a group. Ken
23 Jenne and I had talked about that extensively.
24 Q. Why did you hire Ken Jenne?
25 A. Prior to Ken going to prison, he and I were
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1 very friendly and he was extremely friendly with
2 someone that was very close to me, Grant Smith.
3 During the time that he was down in FDC Miami, I went
4 down to visit him. And after speaking to him and
5 after speaking to Grant, I told him, because he was
6 talking to me about how many people had turned on him
7 and abandoned him. And I told him that when he got
8 out of jail that he had no worries, that I would give
9 him a job.
10 Q. And what --
11 A. And that was the primary reason -- that was
12 my primary reason for hiring him.
13 Q. What was it you were hiring him to do
14 exactly?
15 A. Ultimate the goal was to head up on
16 investigative arm within RRA, within the RRA entities.
17 Q. Well, while he was there, since that didn't
18 happen, what was his obligation to the firm
19 day-to-day?
20 A. He handled firm security issues and he did
21 handle overseeing certain investigative things. We
22 had an alcohol and beverage group that was forming and
23 he was overseeing that. He was helping me find new
24 people to staff it, that kind of thing.
25 Q. Did you have a lot of interaction --
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FRIEDMAN, LOMBARDI & OLSON
305-371-6677
5ed93085-0554-447f-bcdd-ca2d8fe941df
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017498