FD-302 (REV.

3-10-82)

- 1 -
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date of transcription 2/18'/92

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 of1
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 I
Esw1;re, representing Feldman, Waldman and Kline, at cetera. Mr .
I . CPA, t~~ accQuntant
the trustee himsel~,L
the bankruptcy trustee, andfOr
These individuals thereafter
provided the following information: b7C
I '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
were duplicated by per a restriction put on_ _
CberkS
. and
Of!Som:
apparently agreed y the coun~~ for the frus ee y
Mr. ARMSTRONG's representatives.
Quicken summary was in fact a
0
L
pub11C
advised that the
record and that, in
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.

I 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

-.]ID
Invesligationon 2/10/~:J at Sa);} :P'];a1=lci~co, Caloi.;fornil ile 11 J96A-SF-93255 Sub C
~I I b7C
by SA f,YNN HATCHER PKM la an Dale dictated 2 11 0 192
~M I ; I - ..
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 Sub C

Con tlnua tion of FD-302 01 -J I ' On 2/10/92 , P age _~2",,---__

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.
b7C
I
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.

. 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 (~cv. 11-15-83)

~5A-SF-93255 Sub C

b7C

Continuation of FD-302 of -J I ·On 2/10/92 · Pagc_..lI3"'----

All records for Hamilton Taft and any of trmstrOnq/S

companies are currently domiciled in San Francisco. ~
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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