To hear Roy Barnes tell it, Stiles and Sammy Kellett are old Atlanta boys who — with hard work and savvy — became self-made businessmen worthy of a Cobb County, Ga., civil jury’s admiration.

But Georgia’s former governor said the Kellett brothers, whom he has known “all my life,” were bamboozled and betrayed by a Boston doctor in cahoots with accountants from one of the world’s largest, most prestigious accounting firms — PricewaterhouseCoopers.