$8.6 Million in Payments Made in Year Before J. David Collapsed

Nearly $8.6 million in J. David & Co. funds were issued by and for the benefit of former J. David executive Nancy Hoover in the 13 months before the February, 1984, collapse of the La Jolla investment firm, according to documents filed in federal court Thursday.

About $1.3 million of that amount was paid to various members of Hoover’s family, according to the documents filed by J. David & Co. bankruptcy trustee Louis Metzger.

Other documents reveal that nearly $2.5 million was paid out between January, 1983, and February, 1984, to four people closely associated with J. David: top executive Mark Yarry, salesman Ted Pulaski, private attorney Robert Harlan and Norman Nouskajian, who handled much of J. David’s legal work for the Rogers & Wells law firm.

The documents show that Nouskajian was paid more than $82,000, presumably his personal investment in J. David. Nearly all of that was paid to Nouskajian within five weeks of Feb. 13, 1984--the day a group of disgruntled investors forced J. David into bankruptcy.

Directly or indirectly, Yarry received $516,776, Pulaski received $1.8 million and Harlan received $55,000, the documents show.

The nature, however, of many of the payments to Yarry, Pulaski, Harlan and Nouskajian is uncertain. It is unknown, for example, whether some of the payments represent salary or fees or whether they represent personal investments in J. David.

Many of the payments have been previously disclosed through various court filings, including lists of preference payments--those funds paid to investors in the 90 days prior to the bankruptcy. By law, those funds must be returned.

In addition, the lists are probably not complete, Metzger said in his filing.

The list of payments to Hoover and the others was requested last month by U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving, who is overseeing the J. David bankruptcy liquidation. Irving at the time gave no reasons for his request.

Although J. David & Co. founder J. David (Jerry) Dominelli has pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and tax evasion, a federal grand jury is continuing its investigation of his failed firm.

Most of the names included in Irving’s request have been mentioned as possible targets of that grand jury probe.

Included among the expenditures listed for Hoover were $31,000 in payments to her ex-husband, George Hoover; about $66,000 to her brother, Ken Holm; $12,500 to her mother, Virginia Holm, and $225,000 to Tom Shepard & Associates, the political consulting firm that ran San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s campaign.

A total of $412,125 was paid out for political and community relations, while $617,398 was spent on charitable organizations. Nearly $2.5 million was spent on real estate investments and business ventures.

The trustee has garnered only $582,914 from the sale of Hoover’s assets. Under a settlement agreement, Hoover has received only about $37,000 from the liquidation of those assets.