Former Latta mayor’s business partner testifies in federal trial [Florence Morning News, S.C.]

Mar. 23--FLORENCE -- Harold J. Kornblut, the business partner of former Latta mayor Lenneau Berry, testified Tuesday that Berry asked him to issue his paychecks to his wife, Sheila Berry, because he was receiving disability payments and supposedly could not work.

Berry and his wife are standing trial in connection with a 62-count federal indictment alleging they took nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Kornblut and Lenneau Berry were named in the January 2009 federal indictment, which states Kornblut issued checks from the tax service in Sheila Berry's name to further the fraud.

Sheila Berry was later named in a superseding indictment after her husband backed out of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. That deal called for Lenneau Berry to plead guilty to spare his wife from prosecution.

The maximum penalty the Berrys face is a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison.

During Tuesday's proceedings, Kornblut, a self-employed CPA from Latta, said he's known Lenneau Berry since high school. He owned Fast Tax Service in Latta with Lenneau Berry's mother, Gladys Berry.

Lenneau Berry supervised the Clio Fast Tax office and made trips between there and Latta, Kornblut said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William "Bill" Day, who is prosecuting the case, asked Kornblut why Lenneau Berry wasn't on the tax service's list of employees.

Kornblut said it was because Lenneau Berry told him he couldn't be paid because he was receiving disability payments. Kornblut said he was asked to issue the paychecks in Sheila Berry's name, instead.

The jury was shown several time sheets with Sheila Berry's name on it, though Kornblut said the sheets contained hours of work done by both Lenneau and Sheila Berry.

Kim Morrell, a Hartford Insurance claim reviewer, previously testified that Lenneau Berry submitted several questionnaires to the company stating that he didn't work and mostly "sat around the house all day" because of numbness and pain in his feet and legs.

Lenneau Berry eventually became Kornblut's business partner in the tax service as Gladys Berry began having health problems.

Lenneau Berry was then paid 50 percent of the business profits, Kornblut said.

During cross-examination by Lenneau Berry's attorney, Jimmy Rogers, Kornblut said he couldn't remember when Lenneau Berry asked him to make his paychecks out to his wife.

Rogers suggested Kornblut couldn't remember because it never happened, but Kornblut insisted Lenneau Berry asked him to make the checks out to his wife.

Kornblut has signed an agreement with prosecutors that would allow charges against him to be dropped if he cooperated with authorities and paid a $30,000 fine.

Mary Lou Power, former Latta clerk and treasurer, also testified Tuesday. She said the former mayor became angry with her and had town employees remove the door to her office because he suspected she was communicating with law enforcement officials about questionable checks he told her to write.

In July 2005, Power testified, Lenneau Berry told her to issue a check to his wife for worked she'd done at the town's baseball field, even though it was he who had done work at the field.

Power said she also received a high telephone bill for a town cell phone that was issued to Berry's son, who wasn't a town employee.

Power told the court the former mayor also would request reimbursement for trips he made to Columbia, even though she knew he'd used the town credit card to buy gas for the trip. She also said she noticed charges on the town's credit card statement from weekend stops at fast food restaurants, Bass Pro Shops and Wal-Mart.

Power said she asked Berry about the charges.

"He told me my job was to pay the bills and to keep my month shut," Power testified.

Power said she contacted the 4th Circuit Solicitor's Office about Berry and later reported his actions to the State Law Enforcement Division.

That's when Lenneau Berry became angry, told her he had an open-door policy, then told town employees to take her office door off its hinges, Power said.

Robin Richardson, who also worked for Latta as town clerk and treasurer, testified that Lenneau Berry told her to issue a $3,000 check to his wife for work she did with the town summer program in 2004.

Berry told her he'd received permission from town council to give his wife the money.

Richardson, who was the Latta Town Council minute keeper, told the court she didn't recall any council members saying that, but wrote the check anyway.

Lenneau Berry is serving 2 1/2 years on probation after pleading guilty May 19 to state charges of misconduct in office, obstruction of justice and insurance fraud.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, suspended to 30 months' probation, after he pleaded guilty to misconduct in office, said Mark Plowden, a spokesman for S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster.

Circuit Court Judge Steven John also ordered the former mayor to pay $2,757.51 in restitution.

Lenneau Berry also received separate two-year sentences -- also suspended to 30 months' probation -- on five counts of obstruction of justice and making a false statement (insurance fraud).

Testimony in the federal trial will resume Wednesday morning at the McMillan Federal Building in Florence.

To see more of the Florence Morning News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.morningnewsonline.com.

Copyright (c) 2010, Florence Morning News, S.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.