Bermuda's pension fund consultant is now referring all questions from Bermuda newspapers to the company's on-Island lawyer, Tony Cottle, a spokeswoman for Fiduciary Investment Services (FIS) said yesterday.

But consultant Tina Poitevien shed some more light on her relationship with Deputy Premier Ewart Brown and his wife to the Philadelphia media yesterday.

According to a statement Ms Poitevien released to the Philadelphia Daily News, she has "made modest contributions to a handful of political campaigns".

However, she denied that her firm has ever had any involvement in "so-called 'pay-to-play' schemes".

The accusation of pay-to-play surfaced after it was revealed that Ms Poitevien organised a luncheon in Washington in 2002 where guests ? allegedly all current or potential money managers or stockbrokers involved in the Bermuda Government pension funds ? paid $2,500 into Dr. Brown's personal election campaign.

In her statement to The Daily News yesterday, Ms Poitevien repeated that the approximately nine guests who attended the luncheon were all close, personal friends of Dr. Brown or his wife, Wanda Henton.

"Mrs. Brown has been in the investment industry for at least 20 years and has been a personal friend and mentor of mine for over ten years," she said.

However, the Mid-Ocean News reported last Friday that some of those who were allegedly on the guest list did not know who Dr. Brown was. They also did not recall actually being invited to the luncheon, however.

When asked for clarification, an FIS spokeswoman referred this newspaper to the company's lawyer Mr. Cottle, who could not be reached last night.