Conrad Verner is a patriotic fan and supporter of Shepards work. He is first encountered on the citadel in Mass Effect 1 in the form of the asignment Citadel: The Fan. Depending on how Shepard deals with him, he will either; die during a fight with a group of Turians on the citadel to prove his worth, or leave the citadel to return to his family. In the event that the latter option is chosen, the next time he appears is at the Eternity bar on Illium, confronting the asari bartender of the place being a front for distributing red sand, not knowing that the substance is legal on Illium.
Talking with Conrad reveals that he was given this erroneous information by the Gateway Personal Defense dealer. When confronted with this information, she reveals that her motives were to get the deed of the bar. If the player's Paragon score is high enough, they can play along with the dealer and persuade her to demand the deed herself, leading to her arrest, as the owner had surveillance and security present at the bar following Conrad's botched attempt. He will be confused by this, and ask Shepherd what is going on, and at this point the player has several options: lie to him and say that the dealer was actually a deep cover operative belonging to a terrorist cell and Conrad helped Shepherd a great deal in bringing this to his/her attention (the Charm option), tell him that he botched it (the Intimidate option) or simply tell the truth and reveal that the dealer lied to him.
If you chose to lie to him, there is Galaxy News report on the founding of Conrad's charity, "Shepherd's", which aims to help POWs and refugees.