Craig Berkman at trial: They were “loans”
This report from The Oregonian on the Berkman trial. According to news reports, Mr. Berkman testified yesterday that he always intended to repay the investor money that he took, and thus they were loans. I imagine this one is going to be hard one to pull off.
The news reports also highlight Mr. Fortino (one of the investors’ lawyers) cross examination, reporting that Paul Fortino got Mr. Berkman to concede that “loans” are customarily transactions in which the borrowers atcually know that they were lending money. Apparently, these were “loans” that weren’t actually disclosed to the borrowers.
It’s not in the news report, and I don’t have a transcript or first-hand knowledge, so the rest of the cross examination is something I can only imagine. But I suspect that Mr. Fortino went through a litany about a lack of documentation including promissory notes, contracts, loan documents, and the like. He probably had a lot of fun asking about the particulars of these “loans” like the amount of principal, the interest rate, and the repayment date.
I suppose all of this should be written and read with a shred of skepticism, or what in law talk we call, a caveat. News reports sometimes get trials wrong…really wrong. Sometimes that’s innocent when a hard working and honest journalist simply misses something. Sometimes–rarely, I hope–it’s because the reporter has an agenda. And sometimes it’s as simple as an editor nixed part of the report for good or bad reason. So it’s possible that the news report gives a misleading impression of the trial. And all of us owe the system and the parties the grace of waiting for the jury to tell us how it turns out.
Still, it’s impossible not to react to the news report. While I haven’t watched a lick of this trial, it strikes me that Mr. Berkman is coming across like a youngster who hasn’t mastered the fine art of lying. There are several common attributes of good liars, including telling a story that is plausible enough for the listener to suspend his or her critical thinking. And if you’re going to be a good liar, never spin a yarn that is completely at odds with how the world works. Because who could possibly believe that this was a loan?
David Sugerman