Omaha Bookeeper bilked over 20 clients in recent years; previously put on diversion for embezzling money from rescue squad WORLD-HERALD Don Brown and at least 22 other people can tell a similar story about how they lost tens of thousands of dollars to Douglas C. Johnson, their mild-mannered accountant.The cases of those 23 people collectively have led to civil judgments against Johnson exceeding $1 million and a criminal investigation spanning three years. But Johnson still is open for business.Brown, a 62-year-old mechanic, owns Don's Automotive in Council Bluffs. For more than 20 years, Douglas C. Johnson did the body shop's books and taxes, Brown said. Johnson, 49, would stop by regularly to chat about grandkids or business or whatever, Brown said. He considered Johnson a friend, almost family."You'd think he was one of the nicest people you ever met," Brown said. "It took an awful lot for me to even say anything bad about him."Brown said he trusted Johnson enough to loan him a total of $111,800 over a four-month period. The money was supposed to be used to finance a truck company and to buy inventory for a bike company owned by Johnson's wife, Brown said.For each loan - there were three - Johnson provided a promissory note, Brown said. The sloppy, page-long documents look like Johnson pounded them out on a typewriter.The promissory notes said the loan was backed by the businesses and Johnson's personal guarantee, court records show. They promised to pay a handsome interest rate - usually between 9 percent and 13 percent - and said that Brown could get his money back anytime with three days' notice.Brown said he received post-dated checks to cash when the notes came due, but they all bounced."I would tell myself he got himself in a pickle and he's trying to get out of it," Brown said. "I'd make excuses for him." Johnson also made excuses, citing health concerns and family problems when reneging on appointments to discuss the loans, Brown said. "He was really working your conscience." But after two years of delays and defensive explanations, Brown said, he decided to do something. In 23 separate cases, judges have ordered Johnson to pay more than $1.3 million to former clients, court records show. Judges have ruled against Johnson in Douglas County in Nebraska and Pottawattamie and Mills Counties in Iowa. More cases are pending. Johnson has declined to comment and referred questions to his Omaha attorney, Alan Stoler. Johnson, who is not a certified public accountant, continues to operate his bookkeeping business, Osberg-Johnson & Co., out of an office near 56th and F Streets. Stoler said the money Johnson borrowed from clients "was used for investment purposes" in other businesses Johnson worked with. He said Johnson is trying to pay the court judgments. The first case was filed in August 2000 and the first judgment granted in October of that year. But according to court records, almost all the judgments remain unpaid. Now Johnson's former friends and business associates don't know to whom they should - or can - turn for help. Some of his former clients, hoping for an investigation, brought their cases to the attention of county attorneys, police officers, the Nebraska Attorney General, the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, the Iowa Superintendent of Securities and the U.S. Postal Inspector Service. The Postal Inspectors and Department of Banking and Finance have been working together on the case for three years, said Tom Sindelar, the department's enforcement manager. The departments are "still compiling information." "We made a decision at some point to work with other agencies and - instead of attempting to do something piecemeal - to attempt to encompass everything," he said In 2002, after the courts already had ordered Johnson to repay more than $300,000, Nebraska and Iowa banking regulators ordered Johnson to stop writing promissory notes, which is illegal unless the issuer registers with the state. There is no evidence that Johnson has written promissory notes since then. But a week after Nebraska regulators issued the order, Johnson started operating an "investment club," according to documents he gave to one of the investors, Don Dohse. Dohse said he grew concerned about his money after Johnson changed offices, moving from a building with a well-kept lawn to his current office in a building hidden by unkempt landscaping. Dohse, a 78-year-old retiree in Omaha, said he demanded that Johnson return the $30,000 he put into Johnson's investment club. Dohse said he has received only an interest payment. Dohse said he gave Sindelar copies of the documents Johnson provided when the investments were made. Like Johnson's promissory notes, they promised a good profit. The Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance only investigates cases, Sindelar said. County prosecutors then determine whether they want to bring a case based on the evidence Sindelar's department generates. "The scope of this thing wasn't known and wasn't anticipated," Sindelar said. The rulings against Johnson have been civil judgments, and civil cases have a lower burden of proof than criminal cases. White-collar crimes are harder to prove, so it's common for county prosecutors to spend most of their time dealing with violent crimes. "These cases can be technical," Sindelar said. "Eventually Johnson will be confronted. The venue where that occurs remains to be seen." Leigh Ann Retelsdorf, a deputy Douglas County attorney, said Douglas County has no cases pending against Johnson. Douglas County charged Johnson with theft by deception for allegedly taking $160,000 from Omaha Ambulance Service accounts in 2001. Johnson did bookkeeping for the company at the time. Those charges were dismissed after Johnson agreed to attend a diversion program. In a deposition Johnson gave in March 2003, he said he repaid the money "through funds I was able to borrow from people or acquire."