Two years ago, US businesswoman Tina Byles Williams was riding high as chief executive officer of pension plan advisors FIS Group, a Philadelphia-based company which counted the Government of Bermuda among its clients. But a fundraising lunch she organised for Transport and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown in 2002 came back to haunt her in April, 2005 when a series of articles published here accused her firm of questionable “pay-to-play” practices. Now Ms Williams is suing those she claims set out to ruin FIS, as The Royal Gazette reports.Hundreds of newspaper column inches in Bermuda were devoted to the issue of pension fund “pay-to-play” in the spring and summer of 2005. All of them concerned then Deputy Premier and Transport and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown and US businesswoman Tina Byles Potevien (now Williams), a close friend of Dr. Brown’s wife, Wanda Henton Brown.

From April 1 — when the first piece about a March, 2002 fundraising lunch organised in Washington DC for Dr. Brown by Ms Williams appeared in the Mid-Ocean News — to the end of August, 2005, the articles came thick and fast.

The first story claimed that some of the dozen or so pension fund managers and stockbrokers who attended the lunch and paid for the privilege to the tune of $2,500 — cheques made payable to Dr. Ewart Brown (PLP) — did so in the hope that their financial contribution would better their chances of keeping or winning contracts with the Government of Bermuda.

Ms Williams’ FIS Group, based in Philadelphia, already had a contract worth more than $300,000 annually as the Government’s pension fund consultant.

The political furore which followed the Mid-Ocean’s allegation of a practice known in the US as “pay-to-play” could hardly have been greater. The Opposition made repeated demands for heads — particularly Dr. Brown’s — to roll and Finance Minister Paula Cox ordered an independent governance review of the Island’s public pension funds.

Dr. Brown kept his job and the findings of that inquiry — conducted Canadian consultants Morneau Sobeco — were never made public. Eventually, the scandal surrounding the Minister, Tina Byles Williams and pay-to-play slipped away; so much so, in fact, that when FIS Group lost its Government contract on the Island in May, 2006, the fact was never announced and went unreported.

But Harvard graduate Ms Williams had not forgotten the headlines — and nor had her lawyer, libel specialist George Bochetto.

On May 15, 2006, both signed a 46-page complaint filed at Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas against four people she claimed had conspired to destroy the reputation of FIS: Donna Blair, Donna Steinhouse, Holly Hollimon and Edward Siedle.

The first three were former FIS employees whom Ms Williams claims held a grudge against her.

According to the complaint, Ms Steinhouse, a Philadelphia attorney, was a vice president at FIS from January 2001 until she resigned on February 24, 2003. Ms Hollimon, also of Philadelphia, worked there as an investment analyst from April 1999 until her resignation on the same day as Ms Steinhouse.

“Holliman and Steinhouse each resigned from FIS under circumstances which were clear to them that, had they not resigned, both would have been fired for unprofessional misconduct,” writes Mr. Bochetto.

He adds that Ms Blair, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, left her job as senior vice president at FIS in January, 2002 and went to work for T.H. Fitzgerald and Company in Connecticut, one of the money managers for the Bermuda public pension fund until FIS recommended its contract be terminated in July, 2003 for under-performance.

Mr. Bochetto writes: “Blair’s job at T.H. Fitzgerald was, somehow, affected by such discontinuance, and she thereafter changed employers again, this time going to work for Trevor, Stewart, Burton & Jacobson Inc, a money manager based in New York.

“Thereafter, Blair developed an unmistakable animus towards Ms Williams and FIS, which manifested in her, together with Steinhouse and Hollimon (who already had animosity toward FIS after their forced resignations), maliciously spreading false rumours and innuendo about FIS, Ms Williams and their alleged involvement in ‘pay-to-play’.”

The three women — who are contesting the civil claim — are accused of conspiring with Edward Siedle and others to systematically destroy the reputation of FIS Funds Management and Fiduciary Investment Solutions (called collectively FIS) and ruin its current and prospective business relationships.

Mr. Siedle’s name appeared in a number of the articles on FIS, including one which appeared in The Royal Gazette two months before the Washington lunch story broke.

Ms Williams’ complaint alleged that Mr. Siedle joined in the conspiracy with the three “disgruntled” former employees to destroy FIS’ reputation. Judge Mark Bernstein dismissed all charges against Mr. Siedle, of Florida, on March 7 this year, explaining that the court did not have jurisdiction over him.

But the judge overruled the three women’s preliminary objections to the majority of the counts against them. They still face charges of breach of duty of loyalty and fiduciary duty, misappropriation of trade secrets, interference with existing and prospective contractual relations, civil conspiracy and defamation. Ms Hollimon is also accused of breach of contract and Ms Steinhouse of violating her attorney’s duty of loyalty and confidentiality.

If the case is not settled out of court it could go to trial in Philadelphia in September — when a jury will have to decide if FIS’ reputation was “permanently sullied, damaged and adversely altered”. Ms Williams’ lawyer claims to have unearthed a series of e-mails which prove that the defendants were spreading rumours about FIS’ involvement in pay-to-play as far back as 2003 to journalists, clients and potential clients. By 2005, he alleges, Bermuda had become the focus of the trio.

He claims Ms Blair sent an e-mail on January 12, 2005 to the other two women regarding a “Bermuda friend”: David Bolden, chief executive officer of Emerald Financial, who had told her that Mr. Siedle was asking questions about Ms Williams.

“I want to discuss this with you guys on Friday so I can remember all the things I can send him as leads,” she allegedly wrote.

Mr. Bochetto says Emerald had a business relationship with T.H. Fitzgerald — the firm which lost its Bermuda contract on FIS’ advice. “Bolden, like Blair, Steinhouse and Hollimon, had personal animosity toward FIS and Ms Williams,” says the complaint.

Mr. Bolden toldThe Royal Gazette yesterday that the accusation was “wholly untrue” and that he knew nothing of the legal case.

The document refers to a series of e-mails sent the following month in which the defendants allegedly discussed how best to reveal rumours about FIS, their former boss and pay-to-play to Mr. Siedle.

On March 23, 2005, Ms Blair allegedly asked the other two if they were interested in speaking with a Bermuda reporter. More e-mails were exchanged that day, according to Mr. Bochetto, but many were later found by forensic experts hired by Ms Williams to be unreadable due to the defendants purposefully installing software intended to destroy them.

“They do, however, show that various confidential FIS documents were transferred by e-mail to Blair to enable her to share them with the Bermuda reporter,” writes the lawyer.

The e-mails purportedly reveal that Ms Blair talked to Colin O’Connor, then a journalist on the Mid-Ocean News, and told him about the Washington lunch for Dr. Brown.

On March 28 — three days before the first Mid-Ocean article appeared — one of the e-mails between the women allegedly likens Ms Williams to Hitler after she lands a contract in Philadelphia.

Mr. Bochetto says the ensuing 40-plus articles in the Mid-Ocean and The Royal Gazetteportrayed FIS Funds Management and Fiduciary Investment Solutions as “unethical, criminal, destroyed their reputations and exposed them to public contempt and ridicule”.

Yet, he adds, the true motive for the Washington lunch was “Tina Williams’ friendship with Wanda Henton, who she had then known for nine years, and a more recent friendship with Dr. Brown, whom Ms Williams befriended as a result of her friendship with Wanda Henton, years after FIS had been hired by the Government of Bermuda”.

He adds: “Apart from her friendship with Ms Henton, Ms Williams would have had no reason to interact with Dr. Brown since he had no role whatsoever in the decision making process as to the government pension funds in Bermuda.”

Mr. Bochetto describes Ms Steinhouse, Ms Blair and Ms Hollimon as “chortling” over their success in securing negative press in subsequent e-mails, before anonymously forwarding articles to FIS clients, asking them to reconsider working with the firm.

He accuses Ms Steinhouse and Ms Blair of purposefully destroying computer evidence after agreeing under oath to preserve all data and e-mails.

Allegations of breach of contract against Ms Hollimon and misappropriation of trade secrets against all three is based partly on the claim that “details concerning the Washington lunch, including attendees, lists of clients, contracts with clients” were leaked.

Mr. Bochetto claims that FIS’ performance on the Bermuda contract “exceeded benchmark projections and expectations”.

However, the Island’s Public Funds Investment Committee (PFIC), advised the Ministry of Finance to choose another pension fund consultant in May 2006.

“FIS has suffered enormous harm and damage,” states Mr. Bochetto, adding that Government’s request for proposals for the pension fund consultancy was in response to the negative press. He says FIS had to contact all its clients to explain the stories, hire lawyers, forensic experts and a public relations specialist and undergo the Morneau Sobeco review.

Financial Secretary Donald Scott said this week that the Government contract went out to tender “in accordance with the standing policy to periodically tender contracts”.

Mr. Scott added: “Six firms bid for the contract. Following review and assessment, the contract was awarded to New England Pension Consultants Inc., one of the ten largest investment consulting firms in North America.”

Dr. Brown consulted his lawyers in 2005 over the pay-to-play articles but has, so far as The Royal Gazette is aware, never issued any legal proceedings regarding them.

He has said little about the scandal except that the lunch was to raise funds for his election campaign. He has not discussed publicly why American pension professionals would be interested in financially supporting a Bermudian politician or confirmed Ms Williams’ claim that those at the event were his friends. Mr. Bochetto writes: “Dr. Brown had no responsibilities over who was selected by the Ministry of Finance to help manage its pension plan, nor did he play any role at any time when FIS was selected as Bermuda’s pension consultant.”

Now Premier of Bermuda, Dr. Brown might be hard pressed to convince anyone that his reputation suffered any permanent damage from the raft of pay-to-play articles. A jury in Philadelphia may have to decide whether FIS’ did.