First Witness: FBI Agent Brian Burns

The first witness called was Brian Burns. He works for the FBI in Memphis and has been a special agent for 8-9 years.

He told the court that the investigation was implemented after they had gathered information from the field that lead them to believe there was some corruption occurring at state level.

When asked if the undercover operation was necessary, Burns responded that yes, it was.

"It allows you to create a fictious company that would be run by undercover agents," says Burns

Burns was then asked if John Ford was one of those who they thought were involved in the state corruption before the undercover operation.

"Absolutely not," says Burns.

Burns was then questioned about E-Cycle and how it worked as an undercover operation. He told them the E-Cycle headquarters were allegedly in Atlanta, GA, but they set up offices in Memphis and Nashville. They also brought in undercover agents to pose as the oweners of the company.

The two main undercover agents were Joe Caroll who played the role of Joe Carson the president of E-Cycle and LC McNeil whose role was the Vice President and co-owner of E-Cycle.

How it worked was that Carson was the money man. He was a venture capitalist who had invested in the music industry and was successful. McNeil on the other hand played the role of someone who had influence in the entertainment business.

Burns says the reason these roles were decided was because E-Cycle was a new venture. They needed a reason for both Caroll and McNeil to come together and entertainment was the way to do it. They were going to use their success in the entertainment business and apply it to the new business model of outdated computer equipment and be successfull there.

There was one other person involved.

"Timothy Willis was a subject of the initial investigation and eventually agreed to cooperate with the FBI," says Burns. "In the initial investigation, we had uncovered what we beleived was a kickback scheme."