Poulsen: complained in court documents that he doesn't have proper access to a work room to prepare for his trials.

He does not have adequate space.....wow!! I wonder what type of desk or amount of space Poulsen this guy would like to have or believes he needs for preparation?


Former National Century exec on trial in witness tampering case
COLUMBUS (AP) - Lance Poulsen is eager to fight charges that he was the mastermind behind a $1.9 billion fraud scheme at his failed health care financing company.
First, he must battle allegations that he proposed paying a government witness $500,000 - $5,000 a month - in exchange for her not giving damaging testimony.

The witness tampering trial of the former owner and chief executive officer of National Century Financial Enterprises was scheduled to begin Monday in federal court before U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley.

Once that trial ends, Poulsen faces an August trial on multiple counts of conspiracy, wire and securities fraud and money laundering.

Five former executives at National Century were convicted Thursday of similar charges in a fraud scheme that prosecutors likened to large white-collar crime cases like Enron or WorldCom.

In the tampering case, prosecutors say Poulsen and acquaintance Karl Demmler, a Columbus bar and restaurant owner, teamed up to persuade the witness to help Poulsen beat the fraud case against him.

"It's not what you make up, it's what you forget," Demmler allegedly told the witness during a meeting on July 13 in Columbus, according to the FBI's criminal complaint.

During a July 18 meeting, also in Columbus, "Demmler suggested Witness A have 'amnesia,"' the complaint said.

During a Sept. 28 phone call, Poulsen told Demmler one of the best things the witness could say was that she was unfamiliar with the indictment and charges against Poulsen, according to the complaint.

Neither the complaint nor the Oct. 23 indictment identify the witness. The government's 162-item exhibit list refers frequently to meetings between Demmler and Sherry Gibson, a former National Century executive vice president who pleaded guilty in 2003 to securities fraud in exchange for helping prosecutors.

Those meetings match the dates of Demmler's meeting with the witness in the criminal complaint. Gibson is expected to testify for the government, said Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office.

Gibson's attorney, Columbus lawyer Terry Sherman, would not comment except to say he continues to represent Gibson but he is not involved in the witness tampering trial.

Gibson was the prosecution's star witness at the trial of the five former executives that concluded Thursday.

She testified the company kept two sets of books, one for public consumption filled with false information and another that showed the firm's actual shortfalls.

She was not charged in the current witness tampering case.

Federal prosecutor Doug Squires would not comment about Poulsen's Monday trial.

National Century, based in suburban Dublin, offered financing to small hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers by purchasing their debt - also known as accounts receivable.

The government alleges the company also gave those providers unsecured loans, then lied to investors about those loans.

The government says company officials moved money between accounts to cover shortfalls, fabricated data and loaded false information on a company computer system.

Demmler met with Gibson at restaurants and bars for hours at a time, where investigators recorded their conversations. Demmler also talked with her on the phone and left her voice messages, according to the government's witness list.

Demmler said Witness A "did not need to 'change her story' but should rather have 'mental lapse(s),' keep the jury confused and 'prevaricate,"' according to the FBI's criminal complaint.

Poulsen, of Port Charlotte, Fla., is in a county jail in Chillicothe, about 50 miles south of Columbus, awaiting trial. He has complained in court documents that he doesn't have proper access to a work room to prepare for his trials.

"Mr. Poulsen has lost so much preparation time that his ability to prepare with his attorneys will be gravely jeopardized," his attorneys argued in a March 3 document in U.S. District Court.
The government argues Poulsen has plenty of time and space to prepare under a previous court order