Law firm used extensive audio/video surveillance and hired former law‑enforcement officials, including ex‑Florida legislator Ken Jenne, to support ...

arNInNWOS WNP had audio and/or video surveillance? We'll start with audio. A. 1 don't have a specific recollection of every place ] had video and audio, but it was in -- ] had it set up so that in all of the common areas, including our shareholder's lounge, we had -- J had audio and video capabilities. Q. When you say "capabilities," does that mean you didn't always turn it on or you just turned it on when you felt like it? A. J turned it on when J felt like it, when 1 felt like seeing what was going on. | sometimes left the screen up because | had four computer screens on my desk, I sometimes left the screen on with the video of the reception area and some other general areas. But unless ] wanted to see what was going on or listen to what was going on, ] didn't turn it on. It would have been too distracting. Q. Did the attorneys know that this surveillance existed? A. You can see it in the -- it wasn't hidden, you can see it. There were globes up in the ceiling al] over the office. Q. Did you have -- you said -- you didn't answer this, you said you didn't recall. Did you have Page 30 Oe WNrOrFOW DAI DOA WNP TOW MAINA BWNEH PEREVE REDE NOMENA PEA LUNN HS ONAN EESTI OPER HERES HIE RES EESE A AS SORTA BE OE MMONMNHNYHD FRPP BPR PE EL iN ea RI SEES IN EISNER NO eA any surveillance in the conference rooms? : A. No. Q. Other than the common areas you just went : over, in the hallways and the reception -- did you i have it in the hallways, is that a common -- do you : deem that a common area? : A. All the hallways pretty much with the : exception of a few blind spots, J can see all the : hallways. ' Q. And this was on all three floors? A. Yeah. For some reason | think we might : have taken some space on a fourth floor, but ] could : be mistaken. But yes, on the three floors that we : actively had a significant amount of space on, } tried i to have surveillance on al] the common areas of al] that space. : Q. And what floor was Mr. Edwards' office on? =| A. | don't recall. : Q. Did you have the tort group all together or | was it divided up? i A. Except for Adler, Adler was on with -- near | me, down the hall from me. The rest of the group was | all together. I think they were on -- let's see. i There were people up on 22. | was on 16. He must have been on the other floor that we were building Page 31 i Op WHF OM DMOAIAUBWNHEF TOMO DATA YAAWNHEH NONMNMNHNHNFE EP ERP PPP out, because ] remember building out space and | remember Jaffe and all those guys moving into that space. Q. If you were building up that space, do you recall when you put the surveillance in there? A. It would have been while they were building it out or shortly thereafter. Q. During 2009 it seems that you hired lots of former law enforcement people to work at the firm. Why were they people you wanted to hire? A. Severalfold. J had a significant amount of illegal activity going on with various law enforcement agencies throughout South Florida and hiring people from former law enforcement assisted me in engendering support and camaraderie with the law enforcement that } was actually utilizing in illegal activities. Q. So you are saying -- A. Secondarily, ] wanted to have a very strong investigative team, ultimately, to do both legitimate and illegitimate things for the law firm, and hiring former Jaw enforcement was the best way to do that. ] was hoping to actually ultimately create a group. Ken Jenne and I had talked about that extensively. Q. Why did you hire Ken Jenne? A. Prior to Ken going to prison, he and ] were Page 32 very friendly and he was extremely friendly with someone that was very close to me, Grant Smith. During the time that he was down in FDC Miami, I went down to visit him. And after speaking to him and after speaking to Grant, ] told him, because he was talking to me about how many people had tumed on him and abandoned him. And ] told him that when he got out of jail that he had no worries, that ] would give him a job. Q. And what -- A. And that was the primary reason -- that was my primary reason for hiring him. Q. What was it you were hiring him to do exactly? A. Ultimate the goal was to head up on investigative arm within RRA, within the RRA entities. Q. Well, while he was there, since that didn't happen, what was his obligation to the firm day-to-day? A. He handled firm security issues and he did handle overseeing certain investigative things. We had an alcohol and beverage group that was forming and he was overseeing that. He was helping me find new people to staff it, that kind of thing. Q. Did you have a lot of interaction -- Page 33 9 (Pages 30 to 33) FRIEDMAN, LOMBARDI & OLSON 305-371-6677 5ed93085-0554-447f-bcdd-ca2d8fe941df HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017498