THE stockbroker fianc? of Tina Poitevien, Bermuda's pension fund consultant, told the that he was one of the guests at the lunch in Washington DC in 2002 in honour of Dr. Ewart Brown, and that he made a contribution to Dr. Brown's "campaign", but denied doing business with Bermuda's pension fund managers.

Referring to the guests encouraged to contribute $2,500 each to attend a "fund-raising" lunch for Dr. Brown at Sam and Harry's steakhouse in Washington DC on March 11, 2002, a spokeswoman for Ms Poitevien's Fiduciary Investment Solutions Inc. (FIS) toldrecently that, "the attendees at the luncheon were long-standing, close personal friends of Dr. Brown and/or his then fianc?e, now his wife".

They were, she insisted, "motivated to support Dr. Brown as a result of their individual, personal relationships with him and/or his wife, not their employment relationships with any US companies".

In previous weeks, the reported that, as a result of a decision taken in Cabinet after Ms Poitevien was appointed consultant to Bermuda's Public Funds Investment Committee (PFIC), 30 per cent of PFIC managers' stock and bond trades were "directed" to Bermuda brokers.

A source alleged that Bermuda's US-based pension fund managers are encouraged to direct a proportion of the other 70 per cent of Bermuda's pension fund trades to McCullough (Mac) Williams III, a US stockbroker who is engaged to Ms Poitevien.

"It seems like a proportion of the trades of any pension fund Tina deals with are directed to him," the source said. "They are getting married in June, but he has apparently had to change firms, because he didn't want to disclose his relationship with Tina. He has visited Bermuda many times with Tina, and knows all of the players here."

Mr. Williams did change firms recently; after some years as a principal with a Philadelphia-based stockbroker and, after 17 years in the industry, he moved to Columbus, Ohio, with Pacific American Securities (PAS).

Contacted at that office, he was asked if he did business with any of the Bermuda pension fund managers. After a lengthy pause, he responded: "That's a difficult question. First off, I would have to find out who the Bermuda pension fund managers are."

Given the names of the Bermuda managers in 2003, the most recent information available, he responded: "We do have a rule that we can't disclose the names of our clients without their permission, but off the top of my head, I don't recognise those firms as being clients, or doing business.

"A couple of them are US clients, but not Bermuda clients. I don't really participate in Bermuda. As you aware, I have a relationship with Ms Poitevien, and as a result of that, I have not participated in Bermuda."

Mr. Williams said he enjoyed visiting Bermuda, extolled its beauty and praised its people, but said that business was out of the question.

"As far as doing business, it's been a non-entity," he said. "I won't say I haven't done any business, but it's been minimal. It's not really on my radar screen as far as doing brokerage business. The consultant (Ms Poitevien) has been pretty clear about trying to prevent even the appearance of a conflict of interest."

Asked his response to suggestions by sources that Ms Poitevien had directed business to him, he responded that he would deny that "categorically".

"That would be a total untruth. She has never directed any manager to do any business with me," he said. He described having visited Bermuda many times, sometimes with Ms Poitevien, and that he had met a lot of people here.

Asked if he had met Dr. Brown and Calvin White, he said: "Oh, yes, I have met them in Bermuda. They seem to be very nice people.

"They are very dedicated to the Government, and I have heard Dr. Brown speak about the future of Bermuda and what he wants to do for its people. Calvin White is a very passionate person himself."

Asked if he remembered hearing Dr.Brown speak at a lunch in Washington in 2002, he answered: "Yes, as a matter of fact, I was at that luncheon. He did speak there about how, as Minister of Transport, he was trying to improve transportation services to Bermuda, and how he was talking to the major airlines to get more flights, and trying to improve the Bermuda economy by increasing tourism."

Asked whether he was there in his capacity as a friend of Ms Poitevien, or if he was asked to make a contribution to Dr. Brown's campaign expenses, he answered: "Yes, I did contribute to Dr.Brown's campaign."

A January 18, 2005 press release by PAS announced the opening of a new office in Columbus, Ohio and Michelle Schoeffel, president and CEO of PAS, named Mr. Williams as a senior vice-president at the new office. PAS, described as "a rapidly-growing full-service broker dealer co-founded in 1997 by Ms Schoeffel and her husband Tom, "employs 27 people, including 12 traders with an average of 20 years of trading experience".

The release continued: " Before entering the investment industry, McCullough served as Deputy State Auditor for the State of Ohio, from 1987 until 1996. As Deputy Auditor, he served as a board member on all five of Ohio's public pension systems." He earned a JD from the Case Western Reserve University law school in Cleveland, and a BA degree in economics from Miami University of Ohio."

A fund management source said: " I have been told that different managers would have Tina call them and say you have to do business with Mac."

An FIS spokeswoman said: "Neither FIS Group nor Ms Poitevien directs money managers to trade with any individual broker-dealer firm for any of its clients outside of each client's specific brokerage direction programme."

With regard to the Bermuda client's "specific brokerage direction programme", the reported that the principal corporate beneficiary was Maximum Financial Ltd., the parent of Maximum Pension Services, whose CEO is Mr. White, currently on a "leave of absence" from the PFIC, and the largest individual beneficiary was former Minister of Tourism and current government backbencher Ms Ren?e Webb, a director and shareholder of Maximum Financial.