Trustee Claims Walters Tried to Hide $20 Million : Thrifts: Official in Silverado S&L;’s bankruptcy case triples estimate of assets allegedly transferred to Walters’ wife.

Silverado Banking, Savings & Loan figure Bill Walters tried to hide $20 million of personal assets while pleading poverty to Congress and creditors, it was alleged in papers filed in federal bankruptcy court here.

Bankruptcy Trustee R. Neil Rodgers, who had previously accused Walters of hiding $6 million in assets, claimed the former Denver developer failed to disclose an additional $14 million in assets, including $2 million in antiques and artwork. The trustee said Walters, a former business associate of Neil Bush, had transferred those assets to his wife, Jacqueline, since 1986.

Trustee R. Neil Rodgers sued Jacqueline Walters last November to recover millions of dollars worth of real estate and six automobiles he claims Walters fraudulently gave her in order to avoid paying creditors.

Walters has denied the accusations.

Walters, who defaulted on more than $100 million in Silverado loans, gained national attention after testifying before a congressional committee last summer that he was broke even though he was dividing his time between a $1.9-million Newport Beach estate, a $1-million desert retreat in Indian Wells and a $250,000 mobile home in Laguna Beach.

Besides the homes and cars, Rodgers claimed this week, Walters gave his wife a $7.6-million interest in a Colorado limited partnership, $1.7 million for real estate improvements, a $1.4-million promissory note, at least $884,000 in cash and $250,000 for wedding expenses.

The Walters’ Newport Beach estate was lavishly decorated last summer, filled with richly finished furniture and cut crystal. Jacqueline Walters told a visitor at the time that her husband “owns nothing in Orange County.”

She has refused to comment ever since.

The couple were married in October, 1986, and many of the transfers were executed within 48 hours as part of a prenuptial agreement. Jacqueline Walters’ net worth at the time amounted to a car and about $5,000 in cash, Rodgers said.

Rodgers claims in his complaint that Jacqueline Walters accepted the transfers knowing that they were being made to deceive creditors.

On Thursday, Jacqueline Walters’ attorneys refuted the charge.

“She has hid nothing and she is free from fault,” said Robert Steiner. “Those accusations are false.”

Steiner said that Bill Walters was still worth more than $150 million after the transfers were made in the mid-1980s and that he entered into the prenuptial agreement to avoid any kind of prolonged divorce proceeding that would tie up his Denver empire.

Bill Walters’ solvency is a key issue because bankruptcy law permits an individual to transfer assets as long as they are financially solvent and don’t expect to file for bankruptcy. Rodgers’ attorneys have maintained, however that Walters was having trouble in 1986, at the time of his marriage, and had inflated his net worth.

Several months ago, Walters denied an accusation by a Denver socialite that he deposited $20 million in a bank on the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel before filing for personal bankruptcy last November. Rodgers’ complaint claims, however, that Jacqueline Walters received an $80,000 check from a bank on the Isle of Jersey.

Denver socialite Elisabeth Dick claimed during a divorce case last year that her husband, John, had helped arrange for Walters to deposit $20 million in a bank on the Isle of Jersey, but Walters said during a bankruptcy hearing in January that her claim was false.

Rodgers has asked a federal bankruptcy judge for permission to sell the couple’s Newport Beach estate and several other properties.

Walters’ failure to repay Silverado was one of the key reasons for its collapse, regulators have claimed. The thrift’s 1988 failure is expected to cost taxpayers $1 billion.