During the opening statements of the trial of private eye Anthony Pellicano on Thursday, a federal prosecutor said that Pellicano was behind a criminal enterprise which gathered over $2million from spying on Hollywood's rich and famous.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Lally said clients “would pay a premium fee to discredit, and in some cases destroy, their adversaries.”

The 63-year-old is accused for racketeering, fraud and conspiracy, as the mastermind behind an elaborate scheme of wiretapping, briberies to law-enforcement officials, telephone company employees and others in order to uncover compromising information for clients preparing themselves for divorce, civil lawsuits and even criminal charges.

Apparently big names like Sylvester Stallone and comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon were among the targets of the scheme.

According to Lally, Pellicano used to tape his own discussions with his clients.

“He's the biggest government informant in this case” said Lally referring to the recordings FBI seized in 2000 from Pellicano’s office.

Over 70 audio recordings are waiting to be introduced by the prosecutors. However, only one wiretapped call will be played of a wife of a businessman who was believed she had an affair and paid over $200,000 to Pellicano to investigate.

Pellicano, as his own attorney, spoke only 10 minutes in his opening statement arguing that he recorded his own calls in order to create a referencing system.

He was asked to refer to himself in the third person when he addressed the jurors.

Pellicano told the panel: "His presumption was that these conversations would be made available to no one but him," San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Lally said that Pellicano had a wiretapping software program known as Telesleuth in order for him to be the only one accessing the recordings.

Pellicano also recruited senior law enforcement officers and telephone company employees to hide his illegal activities.

Some of them were retired Los Angeles police Sgt. Mark Arneson and former telephone company employee Rayford Earl Turner. Kevin Kachikian and Abner Nicherie were also co-defendants in the case.

They all pleaded not guilty.  

Former San Francisco Giants slugger Matt Williams testified on Thursday. In 2002 he had a harsh divorce with his second wife, actress Michelle Johnson. He said that he refused the offer Pellicano made to him to wiretap her phone.

"It's an illegal act," he testified.

Williams, who know is a broadcaster for the Arizona Diamondbacks, said that he paid Pellicano $25,000 in December 2001 in order to investigate his first wife as he was concerned for the safety of their three children.

Fourteen people were charged in the case and seven pleaded guilty to charges like perjury and conspiracy.