19920218a 302 Regarding Meeting With Trustee

FD-302 (REV. 3-10-82)

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FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

2/18'/92

Date of transcription

On the afternoon of January 13, 1992, a conference was held at thelPffices gf Feldman. Waldman and Kline, bankruptcy counsel for. trustee in the bankruptcy of Hamilton Taft Corporation (HTC). The law firm's offices are located at 235 Montgomery street, suite 2700, San Francisco, California, 94104. Present at this meeting werel Esw1;re, representing Feldman, Waldman and Kline, at cetera. Mr . . CPA, t~~ accQuntant the bankruptcy trustee, and the trustee himsel~,L These individuals thereafter

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provided the following information:

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'stated that he has recently received certain

accounting reports from representatives of CHIP ARMSTRONG in Dallas, Te~as, which begin reporting on the period from November 1, 1990 through June 15, -1991. This accounting work was generated using the Quicken Software and chronicles CHIP ARMSTRONG's personal finances.

I ~ stated that in July, three reports became available to him. Wated that only copies CberkS were duplicated by per a restriction put on_ _ . and

Of!Som:

apparently agreed

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coun~~

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for the frus ee

Mr. ARMSTRONG's representatives.

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advised that the record and that, in

Quicken summary was in fact a addition, the law firm had filed a motion for conternpt·against CHIP ARMSTRONG for his having allegedly violated a temporary restraining order issued by the bankruptcy court.

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I stated

that his preliminary report indicates

that approximately four million dollars of Hamilton Taft funds have been traced· directly to CHIP ARMSTRONG, that is, four million dollars of HTC funds have been traced to going directly to Mr. ARMSTRONG. I Istated that ARMSTRONG had or has five bank accounts. Any payment that was made to CHIP from either

Hamilton Taft or one of the subsidiaries controlled by ARMSTRONG are accounted for, that is, they are covered by explanations. These explanations are usually in the form of a note receivable or an account receivable notation. These entries to the books and records of Hamilton Taft or anyone of these subsidiaries

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If This document conta.in~ neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It Is the property of the FBr and is loaned to your agtncy; 1\ and ils contents are not to be c1blrlbuted outside your aaency.

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FD-302a (B:ev. 1l-lS-83)

f:>A-SF-93255

Con tlnua tion of FD-302 01

Sub C

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2/10/92

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controlled by ARMSTRONG were to pay for clothing for Mr. ARMSTRONG or for a truck for his personal use. Succinctly stated, these documents provided a paper trail for a trloan" or "advance ll to ARMSTRONG to account for the payments to him.

I ~ndicated that an enormous portion of ARMSTRONG's standard of living was booked by the various comptrollers as advances to CHIP ARMSTRONG.

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Istated that during the period March 20th through April 4th, 1991, CHIP ARMSTRONG liquidated three assets which were not in Hamilton Taft's name. The first asset to be liquidated was a helicopter, apparently owned and/or leased by Winthrup Corporation for 1.1 million dollars. The second asset and/or payment was a $700,000 payment to CHIP ARMSTRONG's criminal. lawyer in Dallas. Finally,1 lindicated that $300,000 went to Rem~~Companies wh~ch was possibly in turn repaid to a law firm of Long and Leavitt in San Francisco.

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With

h:se~lt

to the helicopter transaction and

liquidation indicated l~l million dollars was transferred to W~nthrup on the same day and on the same day, CHIP ARMSTRONG wired transferred $700,000 to his Dallas based criminal lawyer,~ IWith respect to this $700,000 'wire transfer, Istated that $400,000 of the lawyers' fees were returned toJthe trUSjee~ Again, with respect to the helicopter transaction indicated that three million dollars had originally been wire transferred to another one of~Knights Bridge companies and then in turn to winthrup Realty. I I stated that ARMSTRONG has few sources of income other than the sale of. assets purchased with Hamilton Taft funds. Among the assets that ARMSTRONG purchased, apparently with Hamilton Taft funds, are two stadium boxes for the Dallas Cowboys football team and these apparently were purchased for $140,000 and $125,000, respectively. A third box is still owned by ARMSTRONG. Approximately 1.1 million to 1.3 million went to various lawyers. Seven hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars went to criminal lawyers and one hundred seventy-five thousand, two hundred thousand and eighty thousand dollars, respectively, went to civil attorneys.

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FD-301a

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11-15-83)

~5A-SF-93255 Sub C

b7C Continuation of FD-302 of

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All records for Hamilton Taft and any of trmstrOnq/S

companies are currently domiciled in San Francisco.

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indicated that some records are missing and those records are for the company known as Winthrup Realty and CHIP ARMSTRONG's personal financial records. Additionally,l ~ndicated that her law firm is in b7C possession of winthrup's ledgers· through May of 1991. b7D

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