Latest news with #Berns
New York Post
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
BK dad Doug Berns turns Knicks game recaps into viral musical parodies: ‘It's mind blowing'
This Knicks fan is dropping bars after the buzzer. Brooklyn-based audio engineer and musician Doug Berns is making waves in the Knicks fandom this season with bizarre musical recaps of each game — which he writes, shoots and uploads with a lightning-speed turn-around of less than a day. 5 Musician Doug Berns, 37, at his Prospect Lefferts Gardens home. Stephen Yang Advertisement 'Knick fans are a family at the end of the day,' said Berns, 37, a lifelong fan who grew up on the Upper West Side and now lives in Prospect Lefferts Gardens with his wife and two daughters. 'The emotional roller coaster of investing in this team is really, really intense. My songs tell the stories of those roller coasters, I hope.' While Berns started the project with the goal of writing one original metal song inspired by a Knicks game, he found that musical parodies of '90s rock and hip hop tunes resonated deeply with audiences – and his videos have since drawn over 15,000 Instagram followers and millions of views since he began the series on Nov. 13 after a win against the Philadelphia 76ers. 5 Berns writes, shoots and uploads all of his musical Knicks game parodies in less than a day. Stephen Yang Advertisement 'My wheelhouse is music that I grew up listening to, and a lot of my millennial contemporaries are Knick fans that grew up in the last golden age of Knicks basketball,' Berns told The Post. 'Most of [the parodies] are songs that swirl around in our emotional hearts and minds.' In the months since Berns launched the endeavor, he's found fans in filmmaker Spike Lee, as well as Knicks players Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart — who showcased one of Berns' songs on their podcast Roommates Show. 'The Internet is so wild, I could never have conceived of this,' Berns said. 'When [90s R&B song] 'Return of the Mack' came out and I'm 5 or 7 years old, the idea that I'd be able to parody it and have two Knicks players with a platform where they're watching me perform and reacting to it, it's mind blowing,' Berns said, referencing his Feb. 28 game parody. 5 Berns estimates he's garnered between 3 and 4 million views since November. Instagram/@duglust Advertisement The Manhattan-born musician also plays in Cafe Wha? house bands in Greenwich Village, a jazz project with 'Bobs Burgers' star H. Jon Benjamin, wedding bands and teaches a 'rock band' music class at an Upper East Side high school. He said he started the project because he felt he 'could always do something with my Knicks knowledge.' 'I was more excited this time,' he said. 'The last four seasons built to this season, with the way the roster was shaping up. I was like, 'I'm excited, I'm inspired, I want to do something.' 'I want to get better at producing songs and recording and playing different instruments. And this is how I do it,' he added. Advertisement 5 'The last four seasons built to this season, with the way the roster was shaping up. I was like, 'I'm excited, I'm inspired, I want to do something,' Berns said. Stephen Yang Berns said he's already laid down the instrumentals for Wednesday's Eastern Conference Finals game one parody — and teased the tune would be a '90s rock classic.' His musical process usually begins the morning of a game when he'll pick out and lay down the instrumentals for a song. Parodies include Alanis Morissette's 'You Oughta Know' redone for a game afainst the Toronto Raptors and a take on the Beastie Boys' '(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!).' Other picks simply pay tribute to his home team: 'When I go towards a hip-hop direction they love it. It's synonymous with New York, a part of Knicks culture is hip hop.' The musician will then take notes during the game at night — watching for stand-out events and hot topics – and then will get to work right after the team wraps. The entire process takes about six hours, he said. 5 Berns isn't always a one-man band, and will sometimes feature guest artists, like TGIFLY (left), on his musical parodies. Instagram/@duglust 'I'll watch a game and be like, 'how am I going to do it?' But I have to, and then my creative juices kick in,' Berns said. 'It has to do with the pressure, the fact that people are counting on this as part of their game consumption ritual.' The Brooklyn musician is now planning to release a 'greatest hits' record on Spotify – and is already working out the copyright kinks. He's also hoping to turn his musical parodies into a 'live show' starting this fall. Advertisement 'I feel like I've been searching for a way to express my talent and fandom and personality for a long time, and I found it with this thing,' he added. 'My goal is to continue giving fans this thing that makes them happy: win or lose. 'It's a little microcosm of [the team's] successes and failures and triumphs and rejection,' he added. 'Music is a way of telling stories of people's lives, and I think doing both is a meta way to look at all of that.'
New York Times
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Meet the ‘Weird Al' Yankovic of New York Knicks fandom: Doug Berns
Somewhere in Brooklyn, below where a family of four sleeps, a basement bunker is the home to a one-man jam session almost every night for six months of the year. Checkered tile floors make it so that footwear is needed in the cold, winter months. The main area is congested but blissful, assuming you're into the arts. Guitars. Bass. Drums. Keyboards for children. A microphone. In the back room of the basement, the walls are slime green. The creations from the next room over come to life in this area. This is where Doug Berns, 36, spends most of his time after his family goes to bed. Advertisement If you're a diehard New York Knicks fan like Berns, and glued to the social-media platform 'X,' formerly known as Twitter, maybe you've seen Berns' memorable walls — or him outside singing or rapping, standing next to someone who looks just like him playing an instrument. Since last November, Berns has been doing postgame recap videos of his favorite team, replaying the sounds of popular music (depending on what genre you're into) and changing the lyrics to fit the happenings of a particular game. It's parody music, but Berns replays all of the originals himself and uses his own vocals. The Manhattan native has found a way to intertwine his two passions — the Knicks and music — in a way that is garnering attention. Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart recently watched one of Berns' recap videos together on their podcast, 'Roomates Show.' Not long ago, Berns received a direct message from a creative hero, Spike Lee — whom Berns considers to be 'the world's biggest Knicks fan,' and, of course, an award-winning filmmaker — that led to the two meeting in person. G FUNK KNICKS GAME RECAP 3.10.25 NYK 133-SAC 104 Panning for gold. 🤘👑🏀🤘#NewYorkForever — doug b, Knicks Metal Recaps Guy (@duglust) March 11, 2025 Berns didn't know what to expect when he decided to become the 'Weird Al' Yankovic of Knicks fandom, but it's safe to say that it wasn't all of this. 'I've been in the Knicks internet space for a few years, on Twitter, made a couple of pieces of content, a couple of funny songs over the years,' Berns told The Athletic. 'I've also been a professional musician since I was 17. I record, I play out in the city all the time. I tour, I do all kinds of stuff in that world. And I just felt that if I could synthesize the two great loves of my life, other than my wife, of course, the Knicks and music into something cool, people would like it. Also I've been wanting to get better at video production, better at songwriting and better at audio production. So all those things kind of came together into this idea. It started more of like a personal challenge to myself, as opposed to, like, a views-grab thing. It was more of like, 'Can I pull this off?' And it just built.' Advertisement By day, Berns wears several hats. He's a father of two and husband to Mary Knapp, a music teacher in New York and trained accordionist. At night, Berns, who learned to play the bass at 12, is a working musician. He's in several bands that do gigs from Jersey City to Long Island, and everywhere in between. Berns is a band called Woozy, he plays in the Cafe Wha? house bands in Greenwich Village, he is also in a 10-piece instrumental band called EMEFE that has an album coming out in a couple of weeks, and recently, he played in Jazz Daredevil, a band created by H. Jon Benjamin who voices Sterling Archer in 'Archer' and Bob Belcher in 'Bob's Burgers.' Around that same time, Berns started subbing in for Hank Azaria's Bruce Springsteen tribute band. Berns is also the 'Jack Black' at a private school in New York, where he teaches a rock-band class twice a week. He works at an audiobook studio as an engineer. 'The first book I ever (worked on) was 'KG: A to Z: An Uncensored Encyclopedia of Life, Basketball, and Everything in Between,' which was Kevin Garnett's encyclopedia on his own life,' Berns said. The only thing that predates Berns' obsession with music is his passion for the Knicks. His earliest memory was the 1994 NBA Finals meeting between New York and Houston, but not because his favorite team was at the sport's pinnacle, rather it was because the O.J. Simpson chase interrupted the Game 5 television broadcast. Berns' fandom started from his older brother and their love for Patrick Ewing. When the two were kids, Berns' parents would make them go to bed before the Knicks' games would end. At some point, his brother snuck a radio into their bedroom and they'd finish the game by listening on a small, battery-powered radio. Berns warned his wife that his obsession with the Knicks was a non-negotiable if they were going to be together forever. 90S R&B KNICKS GAME RECAP 2.28.25 NYK 114-MEM 113 Elvis was a hero to most but… 🤘🕺🏀🤘#newyorkforever — doug b, Knicks Metal Recaps Guy (@duglust) March 1, 2025 Berns has watched every game over the last few years. However, he admits that there was a period toward the end of Isiah Thomas' leadership when he wouldn't watch with as much regularity. Between the Knicks being disastrous and Berns trying to get his music career off the ground, he couldn't be bothered with the direction that New York was going. Berns got hooked back in around 2010 when it became a possibility that a certain superstar could go to the Knicks after leaving Cleveland the first time. Advertisement 'I was just like, 'You know what? I like Quentin Richardson,'' Berns recalls with a laugh. 'I started watching the Knicks every single night again. And then, yeah, we thought we were going to get LeBron. We didn't, but we went in all kinds of insane directions over the last 20-ish years. 'Now, my fandom just grows every year, how much I love this team. I remember on Jan. 11, 2018, the Knicks lost in double-overtime to the Bulls. New York was going absolutely nowhere at the time. I broke my remote control. It was not an important game, but I was just like, 'God, damn it! This iteration still isn't going to be the one.' So, that's kind of been my fandom. Every game means a lot to me.' Through his videos, every game means even more to Berns now. His process starts the morning before a game, before morphing into a dad and husband. He'll pick the song he wants to recreate and do as much as he can leading up the night's game. Berns said his inspiration for what song he'll parody can be based on his mood, what he thinks might happen in the game or possibly the opponent's city. At night, he watches the game and, like a reporter, watches for storylines and matchups. He'll check the feeds of the team's beat writers for a quirky stat or nugget that he can toss into the lyrics. After the game is when Berns writes his lyrics. More often than not, it's pushing midnight, so he'll record that night into his laptop and begin the mixing and mastering process. Berns usually waits until the morning to record the video and do the edits, so that he's not waking up his family late at night. 'Well, the trickiest part with the videos is memorizing the lyrics right after I read them, which is something I almost always do,' he said. 'And then so I'll record the vocals, the guy who's singing first, the me who's singing first, and that'll take probably three or four takes before I have it right. But I'm not editing takes together. I have to get a pretty much a perfect take for it to be usable And then I record the instrumental guy, because there's a little less stress in remembering how to just play a riff I played that day. And then I create a little situation where it looks like we're both standing in the same room together.' Berns' first video this season came on Nov. 13, following a win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Berns liked the feedback he received on social media and decided it was worth pursuing. METAL KNICKS GAME RECAP 11/12/24: NYK 111-PHI 99 🤘🎸🏀🤘 — doug b, Knicks Metal Recaps Guy (@duglust) November 13, 2024 All while Berns was testing out this new creative endeavor and gaining some traction online, his wife was unaware of how much it was taking off. Berns has always been creative and producing content online, so for Knapp, this was just another endeavor he was barking on. It wasn't until Berns did a parody of 'Chop Suey!' by System of a Down, a challenge from another Knicks fan after New York got blown out at home by the Oklahoma City Thunder, that she realized her husband's late-night hours in the basement watching Knicks games and recording music was becoming 'a thing.' The recap has more than 60,000 views on 'X' alone. NU METAL KNICKS GAME RECAP 1.10.25 NYK 101-OKC 126 Bricks, bums and boo birds 🤘🥡🏀🤘#NewYorkForever — doug b, Knicks Metal Recaps Guy (@duglust) January 11, 2025 'I think that I, wrongfully, in the past was a little bit skeptical of this commitment to making videos for social media,' Knapp said. 'He proved me wrong. He's getting fans from it. It's funny. I find myself going back through his older videos, all the different things he's done. I'm like, 'Oh, it's time to bring that stuff back, too.' He had all these characters and he had all these different schticks. I mean, he has like, trippy political videos, you know all kinds of s—. So, I'm like, 'Let your new fans see all that stuff too, you know?' Advertisement 'I'm super proud of him. And, you know, I think he had the feeling, like he kind of knew before he even started making these videos, 'I feel like something's about to happen with my music.' So, it was kind of cool that he had the foresight, and he kind of knew that (this could be a thing).' Knapp has even joined in on the fun. There are few postgame videos where she makes an appearance, playing the accordion and keyboard. CELTICPUNK KNICKS GAME RECAP 2.8.25 NYK 104-BOS 131 Plop. Ft. the illustrious Mary Knapp accordion 🤘💩🏀🤘#NewYorkForever — doug b, Knicks Metal Recaps Guy (@duglust) February 9, 2025 'I've even shot videos of him,' Knapp said. Even with the notoriety and knowing that some players have seen his videos, Berns tries to maintain journalistic integrity. His lyrics often portray what took place in the game, good or bad, similar to a beat writer's words. He's a Knicks fan who doesn't choose to see life through blue-and-orange glasses. 'I know that these guys hear harsh criticism every day, and my songs when the team doesn't perform well, I don't pull punches,' Berns said. 'I appreciate that even still, like they are willing to, like, have a laugh and enjoy, you know, the tribute to what they do, like actual active guys on the roster, because, you know, it's a game that they bust their ass for, but it's a game, you know?' By combining his two greatest passions, Berns has found a creative outlet as fulfilling as any he's had in his life. It's allowed him to be entrenched even deeper into the online world of his favorite team. It's given him another reason to be invested, even though he didn't need one. It's allowed him to interact with the players of his favorite team. Knicks center Mitchell Robinson and Berns have exchanged messages. It's led to Berns meeting with people he's idolized in the entertainment industry. Advertisement Everything he's ever loved and studied collided ever-so perfectly to become art. And it happened by Berns just being himself. 'He really, really hit on something that he has, like, the unique qualifications to deliver,' Knapp said. 'It's the extreme intersection of the knowledge of the sport and the team and then his production skills and his music. I was like, 'Oh, here's the trifecta.'' (Top photo courtesy of Doug Berns)
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Yahoo
L.A. producer accused of fleecing dad's longtime pal out of $7 million in brazen scam
A struggling film producer fleeced a longtime pal of his father's in an audacious con that netted the 41-year-old more than $7 million over a seven-year period, authorities allege. The victim, who is identified in court records by the initials 'R.P.,' has known the scammer, Justin Berns, since he was four, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed Wednesday and reviewed by The Independent. Berns's brazen scam revolved around an ongoing financial hard-luck tale featuring phony bank documents, bogus collection agency letters, and a California attorney who never actually existed, the affidavit states. The West Hollywood resident co-produced the popular web series My Gay Roommate, which ran for three seasons and spawned a made-for-TV movie, which Berns co-executive produced. He produced three or so other projects, in 2016 and 2017, while working in digital marketing at 20th Century Studios, Berns's LinkedIn profile shows. Federal agents arrested him in Michigan on March 11, but Berns, whose Facebook profile includes photos that show him hobnobbing with various political figures, does not yet have a lawyer listed on the docket and was not able to be reached for comment. Reached by phone on Wednesday, Berns's father, who lives in South Florida, told The Independent that he 'can't talk now,' before quickly hanging up. Berns's alleged ruse kicked off in April 2017, when Berns's dad told R.P., a friend of his since 1987, that his son was in the midst of 'substantial financial hardship,' the FBI affidavit states. He said he had been helping Berns pay off a mountain of debt, but that he himself had since run out of money in the process, the affidavit explains. (Berns's father is not accused of any wrongdoing.) Berns then connected with R.P., telling the Palm Beach County, Florida, resident that 'due to his extensive debts, history of overdrafts, and writing bounced checks,' the money his dad had given him was 'tied up and frozen by [his] banks,' the affidavit goes on. He said he needed R.P.'s funds to pay off a certain amount of his existing debt, which would subsequently 'unfreeze' the funds his father had fronted him, according to the affidavit. Once the money was unfrozen, Berns assured R.P. he would pay back both him and his dad, the affidavit continues. R.P. agreed to lend Berns what he needed, 'believing he was helping' his old friend's son get back on his feet, the affidavit states. So, R.P. soon began wiring money according to Berns's instructions, the affidavit says. However, each time R.P. sent the amount Berns had requested, he would ask for more, floating an array of excuses as to why his accounts were still frozen. 'On some occasions, [Berns] would tell R.P. that his money was received but reversed by the bank weeks later due to his blacklisted status with various banks and credit unions,' the affidavit contends. '[Berns] told R.P. that the banks collaborate with one another, and therefore several banks know of his poor financial history. [Berns] explained that banks use Early Warning Services and Chexsystems as a weapon against consumers attempting to utilize the banks' services.' To bolster his claims, Berns regularly sent R.P. screenshots of his accounts, purportedly showing large amounts of money, sitting there frozen, the affidavit alleges. It says he backed these up with correspondence from various collection agencies he claimed were 'working on behalf of the banks,' insisting to R.P. that, for these reasons, he 'was unable to send and receive money through traditional banking methods.' Berns told R.P. that he hired a lawyer named Stephen Hernandez to help him fight back against the banks and collection agencies, according to the affidavit. R.P. subsequently began receiving regular emails from Hernandez, who kept him updated on the details of Berns's financial circumstances, forwarding emails and other documentation from banks and collections firms from his own Gmail account, the affidavit states. One included a promissory note from Berns to R.P., drafted by Hernandez, for $3.9 million, it says. 'According to R.P., Hernandez's emails to R.P. legitimized [Berns's] situation,' the affidavit states. Yet, it maintains, each time R.P. called Hernandez at the number Berns gave him, no one ever picked up the phone. When R.P. tried to confirm Hernandez's identity for himself, he was unable to do so, as was a California-based attorney he hired to track him down, according to the affidavit. It says FBI investigators analyzed subscriber and IP login records for the Gmail address Hernandez used to communicate with R.P., and found it had been created around the same time Berns claimed to have retained him. IP connection logs for the Hernandez Gmail account also overlapped with connection logs for Berns's personal email address, the affidavit states, noting that the contents of Hernandez's Gmail 'only pertain to communications with R.P. and not to any other clients.' As it turned out, Berns created 'Stephen Hernandez' out of whole cloth, according to the affidavit. 'Throughout the investigation the FBI has attempted to verify Hernandez's existence and status as a California attorney,' the affidavit maintains. 'The California State Bar confirmed that there is no record of a person named Stephen Hernandez ever being licensed to practice law in California since the Bar's establishment in 1927.' Last March, a letter on TD Bank letterhead that Berns sent to R.P. showed a balance of roughly $6.4 million, and told his benefactor it would release the funds within three to five business days, according to the affidavit. But, the FBI says it contacted TD Bank, which said Berns's accounts had already been closed at that point, there was no money in them, and confirmed that the letter was counterfeit, the affidavit states. It says the FBI also got in touch with Transworld Systems, the collection agency Berns claimed was hounding him, having sent R.P. at least 21 letters purportedly from a pair of employees at the firm's office in Horsham, Pennsylvania, named 'R. Saguaro' and 'A.L. Maxwell.' Again, TSI executives told the FBI that the company not only had no record of any accounts related to Berns, and didn't send the letters, it didn't have an office at that address, and did not have any employees by those names, according to the affidavit. 'Therefore, it appears that these letters were also fraudulently created by [Berns] and sent to R.P. in an effort to further his fraud scheme and extract additional money from R.P.,' the affidavit alleges. In all, the affidavit says R.P. wired Berns over $7 million between May 2018 and May 2024. Berns 'does not appear to have any other course of income,' it contends, adding that, to date, R.P. 'has not been repaid.' 'Furthermore,' the affidavit concludes, 'an analysis of bank records received… revealed that [Berns] used the funds received from R.P. on international travel, luxury hotels, nightclubs, gambling, and personal living expenses.' Berns is facing one count of wire fraud, a charge that could put him behind bars for up to 20 years. He remains detained pending an initial appearance on April 2 in West Palm Beach federal court.
The Independent
13-03-2025
- The Independent
L.A. producer accused of fleecing dad's longtime pal out of $7 million in brazen scam
A struggling film producer fleeced a longtime pal of his father's in an audacious con that netted the 41-year-old more than $7 million over a seven-year period, authorities allege. The victim, who is identified in court records by the initials 'R.P.,' has known the scammer, Justin Berns, since he was four, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed Wednesday and reviewed by The Independent. Berns's brazen scam revolved around an ongoing financial hard-luck tale featuring phony bank documents, bogus collection agency letters, and a California attorney who never actually existed, the affidavit states. The West Hollywood resident co-produced the popular web series My Gay Roommate, which ran for three seasons and spawned a made-for-TV movie, which Berns co-executive produced. He produced three or so other projects, in 2016 and 2017, while working in digital marketing at 20th Century Studios, Berns's LinkedIn profile shows. Federal agents arrested him in Michigan on March 11, but Berns, whose Facebook profile includes photos that show him hobnobbing with various political figures, does not yet have a lawyer listed on the docket and was not able to be reached for comment. Reached by phone on Wednesday, Berns's father, who lives in South Florida, told The Independent that he 'can't talk now,' before quickly hanging up. Berns's alleged ruse kicked off in April 2017, when Berns's dad told R.P., a friend of his since 1987, that his son was in the midst of 'substantial financial hardship,' the FBI affidavit states. He said he had been helping Berns pay off a mountain of debt, but that he himself had since run out of money in the process, the affidavit explains. (Berns's father is not accused of any wrongdoing.) Berns then connected with R.P., telling the Palm Beach County, Florida, resident that 'due to his extensive debts, history of overdrafts, and writing bounced checks,' the money his dad had given him was 'tied up and frozen by [his] banks,' the affidavit goes on. He said he needed R.P.'s funds to pay off a certain amount of his existing debt, which would subsequently 'unfreeze' the funds his father had fronted him, according to the affidavit. Once the money was unfrozen, Berns assured R.P. he would pay back both him and his dad, the affidavit continues. R.P. agreed to lend Berns what he needed, 'believing he was helping' his old friend's son get back on his feet, the affidavit states. So, R.P. soon began wiring money according to Berns's instructions, the affidavit says. However, each time R.P. sent the amount Berns had requested, he would ask for more, floating an array of excuses as to why his accounts were still frozen. 'On some occasions, [Berns] would tell R.P. that his money was received but reversed by the bank weeks later due to his blacklisted status with various banks and credit unions,' the affidavit contends. '[Berns] told R.P. that the banks collaborate with one another, and therefore several banks know of his poor financial history. [Berns] explained that banks use Early Warning Services and Chexsystems as a weapon against consumers attempting to utilize the banks' services.' To bolster his claims, Berns regularly sent R.P. screenshots of his accounts, purportedly showing large amounts of money, sitting there frozen, the affidavit alleges. It says he backed these up with correspondence from various collection agencies he claimed were 'working on behalf of the banks,' insisting to R.P. that, for these reasons, he 'was unable to send and receive money through traditional banking methods.' Berns told R.P. that he hired a lawyer named Stephen Hernandez to help him fight back against the banks and collection agencies, according to the affidavit. R.P. subsequently began receiving regular emails from Hernandez, who kept him updated on the details of Berns's financial circumstances, forwarding emails and other documentation from banks and collections firms from his own Gmail account, the affidavit states. One included a promissory note from Berns to R.P., drafted by Hernandez, for $3.9 million, it says. 'According to R.P., Hernandez's emails to R.P. legitimized [Berns's] situation,' the affidavit states. Yet, it maintains, each time R.P. called Hernandez at the number Berns gave him, no one ever picked up the phone. When R.P. tried to confirm Hernandez's identity for himself, he was unable to do so, as was a California-based attorney he hired to track him down, according to the affidavit. It says FBI investigators analyzed subscriber and IP login records for the Gmail address Hernandez used to communicate with R.P., and found it had been created around the same time Berns claimed to have retained him. IP connection logs for the Hernandez Gmail account also overlapped with connection logs for Berns's personal email address, the affidavit states, noting that the contents of Hernandez's Gmail 'only pertain to communications with R.P. and not to any other clients.' As it turned out, Berns created 'Stephen Hernandez' out of whole cloth, according to the affidavit. 'Throughout the investigation the FBI has attempted to verify Hernandez's existence and status as a California attorney,' the affidavit maintains. 'The California State Bar confirmed that there is no record of a person named Stephen Hernandez ever being licensed to practice law in California since the Bar's establishment in 1927.' Last March, a letter on TD Bank letterhead that Berns sent to R.P. showed a balance of roughly $6.4 million, and told his benefactor it would release the funds within three to five business days, according to the affidavit. But, the FBI says it contacted TD Bank, which said Berns's accounts had already been closed at that point, there was no money in them, and confirmed that the letter was counterfeit, the affidavit states. It says the FBI also got in touch with Transworld Systems, the collection agency Berns claimed was hounding him, having sent R.P. at least 21 letters purportedly from a pair of employees at the firm's office in Horsham, Pennsylvania, named 'R. Saguaro' and 'A.L. Maxwell.' Again, TSI executives told the FBI that the company not only had no record of any accounts related to Berns, and didn't send the letters, it didn't have an office at that address, and did not have any employees by those names, according to the affidavit. 'Therefore, it appears that these letters were also fraudulently created by [Berns] and sent to R.P. in an effort to further his fraud scheme and extract additional money from R.P.,' the affidavit alleges. In all, the affidavit says R.P. wired Berns over $7 million between May 2018 and May 2024. Berns 'does not appear to have any other course of income,' it contends, adding that, to date, R.P. 'has not been repaid.' 'Furthermore,' the affidavit concludes, 'an analysis of bank records received… revealed that [Berns] used the funds received from R.P. on international travel, luxury hotels, nightclubs, gambling, and personal living expenses.' Berns is facing one count of wire fraud, a charge that could put him behind bars for up to 20 years. He remains detained pending an initial appearance on April 2 in West Palm Beach federal court.
