Maryland Lobbyist Reaches Settlement With Ethics Panel Over Fee System

Bruce C. Bereano, one of Maryland's best-known lobbyists, has reached a settlement in a long-running dispute with the State Ethics Commission that does not require him to suspend his practice. Instead, Bereano has agreed to pay more than $29,000 to cover commission costs associated with the case and to allow inspection of his fee agreements with clients for the next three years.

The settlement, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, resolves a 2002 complaint by the commission that said Bereano had entered into an improper contingency-based fee arrangement with a client. The following year, the commission suspended Bereano's license for 10 months and imposed a $5,000 fine.

Those penalties were stayed as the case worked its way through the court system, and Bereano has continued to lobby in Annapolis for a range of clients with interests before state government. Last year, the state's highest court sent the matter back to the ethics commission after ruling that it had misapplied a legal principle in its finding in the 2002 case.

In the settlement, which is expected to be made public today, Bereano acknowledges "that sufficient evidence exists to construe" the fee arrangement as improper, but he does not admit liability.

Bereano referred questions to his attorney, Timothy F. Maloney. "The agreement speaks for itself, and Mr. Bereano has no comment beyond that," Maloney said.

Bereano was convicted in an unrelated fraud case in 1994 but staged a professional comeback that has continued even as he has fought the 2002 complaint.

Between November 2007 and October 2008, Bereano reported compensation of $806,250 from clients, the seventh-highest total among Annapolis lobbyists, according to ethics commission records.

During his 2006 campaign, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) vowed that his office would not do business with lobbyists with prior felony convictions, citing Bereano by name.