19910308a Fbi Memo -solodoff Yamaguchi Pelosi

Memorandum

. SAN FRANCISCO (196A-SF-93255) (P)

To

From

Subject

sAJ

_

(SQ' 5)

Date

3/8/91

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CHIP ARMSTRONG, Jr., dba Hamilton Taft and Company 1 Market Plaza Spear street Tower San Francisco, California FBW; MFi Tax Fraud;

00:

SAN FRANCISCO

The purpose of this memo is tO'document events that

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~~;;;:"":~~Io6..JII'oIIIel...,e since 6bruary 13 I 1 9 whi,?h is the date that ~~~~ ~was last interviewed by the writer. On that __________~provided a numbs ocuments to iter which have been disse ~na e y he writer to ~A or the IRS C~here in San Francisco, telephone number 556-6850. It should: also be noted. that a copy of these documents along with a summ~ry of the writer's review of San Francisco file 196A-2868 has been prepared and disseminated to AUSA MICHAEL YAMAGUCHI at 556-1328. A copy of this summary is a matter of record under a separate

communication which is a part of this file. Due to the fact that AUSA YAMAGUCHI was on annual leave

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and did not return to his office until March 4, and/or 5, 1991 no overt investigation was undertaken. This matter was referred to Mr. Y GUCHI because of his revious referral w' he handled re ardin Haml on Taft in which he subse entl f rlJlck prosecution.. This matter was investigated by S

0]_it was

handled under--SF 196A-2868 and was closed

August, 1988.

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with regard to information supplied writer was reluctant to initiate any overt investigation for fear thatthere would~ Eotential liability attached wherein the governm~nt £.QB1dJ2e accused.Qf initiatipg the downfall ,of captioned company bvl'the mere fact that it was making overt inquiries. [ . ' ,has provided detailed information which, ~ of this date, has'been unable to be thoroughly corroborated. Progress is being made to effect such corroDorat2on. .

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~ expressed apprehension in his mind regarding the "extensive n time-it was taking for the government to decide Whether or not to initiate an investigation and to effect some criminal process. He was told that the government ha_g._:t.Q.........@~_ victim before any process would be forthcoming. He was further

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196A-SF-93255 PKM/sgc advised on more than one occasion by the writer of the potential civil liability which miggt attach to the revelation to the

general public that the FBI was conducting or maybe conducting an investigation into certain alleged criminal activities on the part of Hamilton Taft.

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Nonetheless, on February 1-1, 1991~r= lsaw fit to contact the congressional offices here in San Francisco of Congress persons NANCY PELOSI and BARBARA BOXER. ~ on resswoman PELOSI's office to whom spoke ave arne of an investi ative re orter e ~hould consider contacting.. with b~s infOrmat.iQD. On Fel;>ruar~,'; ~1, the w~it~r as well as ~gentl lof the Cln repo~ed - receiving telephone calls from an attorney at the Department of Justice making inquiry as to the FBI and/or IRS' connection if any with Hamilton Taft. ~presentat'

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On February 13, 1991, during the interview ofl~ __ conducted by the writer, he was again questioned as to the reason for making calls to the aforementioned conaressional offices.

stated that he was concerned about I

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Ifollowing his resignation from Hamilton ~T-a-Y-~t--o-n--F-le-~b--'r-u-a-r-Y~1~1~,~1~9~9~1~. It should be noted that during this interview on February 13, 1991 re-iterated that fact.thatl I He was J---again reminded of potential civil liability problems that might ~ gn?ue from the publicatiQD Qf the possibl~nterest of the FBI

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with

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res~9t

to-Jiamilton

£af~.

On Wednesday, March 6 1991, the writer received ~ telephone call from SAJ ; JIRS CID who advised that he had been called by a M-. RALPH :IN W, an investigative reporter for the Wall street Journal here in San Francisco. The purpose of KING's call to SWAIN was to confirm that the IRS was conducting~nY§stigationregarding Hamilton

Taft.

On the

morning of March 6, 1991, the writer reviewed message slips that had arrived on Tuesday, March 5, 1991, the writer having been on sick leave that day and one of, them was from RALPH KING of the Wall street Journal. The writer did not return KING's phone call, however, in res~g to a page, for a telephone calIon the afternoon call of ~h-_6J) 1991, the writer became connected to Mr. KING of the Wall street,Journal. The usual inquiries were made and the usual response, t~at, is we can neither confirm and/or deny the existence of any investigation was provided to

thi§

Mr. KING who seemed perturbed £y 2

~espon~.

196A-SF-93255 PKMjsgc

r head of corporate at 2550 Garcia Ave., Mountain View, California 94043, telephone number (415) 336-0496 was called by the writer in response to call that he had made to our office on March 5, 1991. On March 6, 1991,1

security of Sun Micro Systems Inc.

that his office had been contacted by was accompanied by an attorneJ one (ph) who advised that the purpose ofl . _ contac lcro Systems was to advise Sun Micro Systems that it had been the victim of a fraud perpetrated by Hamilton Taft' on Sun -.Micro Systems and numerous other corporate clients of Hamilton Taft. ~dvised the writer that he would fax certain documents up to San Francisco at the writer's 5uggestiqn. These documents· included a

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copy of· the service agreement thal: exists betw~en Sun .Mic1;"o

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Systems and Hamil ton Taft dated (October 1, __.1987 as well as copies of certain Federal tax forms whicn had been executed by employees of Hamilton Taft Company. ~ lalso advised the writer that ad of his own volition convened a meeting of ""~~}:'~~ _.':~ several of the corporate representatives who he had contacted .t~~('-_~,':;~'.'.J presumably in the first week of March telling these corporations who are current and/or former clients of Hamilton Taft, that they had in fact been ,defrauded by Hamilton Taft. Sun Micro-Systems reluctantly agreed to "host" this meeting which was to take place .I"'" during the afternoon of March 8, 1991 at Sun Micro System's '; offices in Mountain View. nf

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Of the mornin: of March 7, H91, I I,throtgh' his associatel an investigator for the Co~porate Securit~Department of un Micro Systems, facsimiled l~~ages oj documents to the writer. The most salient point of t~ese

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documents was a letter to Sun Micro Systems dated February 13, "', ,'.' ' 1991 from the ,.IRS in-- Fresno. The letter refers to a particular ,/' ;) >')' tax identification number utilized by' Sun Micro Systems and . '~: references a tax period ending september 30 I 1990.'- The letter ~,l~:?,.,. } goes on to thank tax payer (Sun Micro Systems) for its reply t -.~, '; dated January 25, 1991 and its payment of $260,784.25 in penaltyJ;'..... fees and for its late deposit of ($5,215, 684~86). The - .,~ signifiri:lD:e Of th~S ::mmunication is that Sun Micro Systems .,' .. t h r o u g h L J h a s represented, as of March 7, 1991, that it did lnac~ sen t e appropriate money that is $5,215,684.86 to Hamilton Taft via a wire transfer in order to pay employment tax obligations do and owing the IRS for the tax period ended September 30 r 1990. Per an agreement of which the writer is in receipt, that is, the service agreement between Hamilton Taft and Sun Micro System?, Hamilton Taft is responsible for the payment of~--L~e penalti~§4 It is an inference drawn by Sun 3

196A-SF-93255

PKM/sgc Micro Systems personnel that this document tends to corroborate what I I was alleging in his representations to the government. '

On the afternoon of March 7, 1991, AUSA YAMAGUCHI was personally visited by the writer and a brief update was provided to him of events that have taken place. On March 8, 1991, copies

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of the aforementioned facsimiles were provided to AUSA YAMAGUCHI fore his review. On March 8, 1991, Mr. YAMAGUCHI suggested to the writer ,that efforts continue to accumulate enough probable cause to cause the issuance of a search warrant for the offices at Hamilton Taft at the earliest possible date.

The following corporations have been contacted by ] I land/or his attorney and ~d~~~ed that they' have been the victims of fraud perpetrated on them by Hamilton Taft. These corporations are Costal Savings Bank, Sun Micro Systems, American

West Airlines, and one or two chemical companies located at the east coast. In addition, I advised writer that he has been contacted by

representat~ves

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of Lloyds of London

Insurance company with respect to Hamilton Taft.

It

is-y,nkno~~

~~~~~~tdyal~!!!p~;~_!,~~_,~.wil.~ , h_e,Y,~~,},~E?i.~~,~~~!~,!:~~~,~,__ "_9! .. J)}.e ,on the .afternoon

me~t~ng_"",I:.o-;-oe,,··he~d_~,at,.Sun.,M~c_ro __ systems, ().f:!:~pes

at-March 8, 1991.

San Francisco at San Francisco, California: Investigation is continuing.

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