Altomare Deposition 26 Jun 08 OCR Transcript Extract 3
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Q. Then if you would look at the second page of Exhibit Number 9, it's Bates number RAA-1656, it is an April 10, 2006 check from Universal Express account 2605, in the amount of $75,000 payable to you. Do you recognize your signature?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. What was the purpose of Universal Express paying this money to you?
A. It would be the same answer.
Q. It was paying you accrued salary that you had previously earned?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. When you requested your controller to make these kinds of payments, did you have a typical practice of filling out some kind of a form or a written request?
A. No.
Q. Did you typically create corporate board minutes or a written consent for these kinds of transactions?
A. No, ma'am.
Q. Now, I would like you to look at the third page of Exhibit 9, Bates number RAA-1893. This is a deposit slip from your Wachovia account number 5480, which indicates on November 5, 2006, there was a currency deposit of $8,000.
MR. TIFFORD: September 5th?
Q. On this document I see the date November 5, 2006.
MR. TIFFORD: I see a printed date and a handwritten date of 09/05/06, printed 9/5/06. Let me show you these (indicating). Here is the printed, I'm putting an arrow, and here is the handwritten. I read the handwritten as 9/5/06.
MS. HUGHES: I think we're in agreement. Maybe I have misspoken, but I think the date that we're looking at there is September 5, 2006.
MR. TIFFORD: I apologize.
MS. HUGHES: Just so we're on the same page.
MR. TIFFORD: We are now.
MR. SCHOEPPL: Just for the document, Exhibit 9, refers to September 5, 2006.
MS. HUGHES: Correct.
MR. SCHOEPPL: Not November 5, 2006.
Q. Do you know the source of the cash that Barbara Altomare was depositing in September of 2006 that's reflected with this document?
A. The $8,000.
Q. Right.
A. No, ma'am, I do not.
Q. Do you recall your wife receiving a gift of cash in this amount at this time frame?
A. I really don't recall.
Q. Do you recall her selling any property?
A. No, ma'am.
Q. Did she have a job, other than at Universal Express, that would pay her money such as this?
A. No, ma'am.
Q. And the last page of this exhibit we had previously marked as Exhibit 1, and we're not going to talk about it anymore.
A. Okay.
MS. HUGHES: I am going to mark this as Exhibit Number 10.
(Plaintiffs Exhibit 10, March 10, 2006 check drawn on Richard Altomare's Wachovia account 5480, to Coldwell Banker for $1,000, Bates number RAA-1518, marked for identification, as of this date.)
Q. Mr. Altomare, I have handed you Exhibit Number 10. This is a March 10, 2006 check drawn on your Wachovia account, account 5480. The Bates number is RAA-1598. It's a thousand dollar check to Coldwell Banker. Do you recognize your wife's signature on this?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. Do you know why in March of 2006 your wife was paying a thousand dollars to Coldwell Banker?
A. It may have been a deposit to make a bid on an apartment. It may have been for Toscano. Maybe Coldwell Banker was the Toscano where Vinny worked, but I don't know more than that on the thousand dollar check.
Q. At the top of the check there are some numbers, 3560-7057. Do you recognize what those numbers are?
A. No, ma'am.
Q. This check is dated eight months prior to the closing on the Toscano West condo. Were you dealing with Mr. Vincent at Coldwell Banker at that point in time?
A. It may have been for another property. It may have been for that property. I truly do not know.
MS. HUGHES: I am going to have the court reporter mark this as Exhibit Number 11.
(Plaintiffs Exhibit 11, Compupay printouts of the payroll accounts for Richard Altomare and Barbara Altomare, marked for identification, as of this date.)
MS. HUGHES: Mr. Tifford, Mr. Schoeppl, I don't have an extra copy of this. This is a Compupay payroll printout that we had previously included.
MR. TIFFORD: Okay.
Q. Mr. Altomare, this is a document that we obtained through the receiver from Compupay, which did the payroll for Universal Express, And included within this exhibit are printouts of the payroll account for you and your wife.
A. Okay.
Q. I believe the second page of that exhibit should be for you, and if you don't mind, I'll just stand up a bit, so we could look over and see it. It lists your name here in the lower left-hand corner. And then it lists a series of entries. Most of them are for 25,000, which, when you get after all the deductions, the average check is 15,000 and change?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. Then starting in March 24th of 2006 there is a series of entries that are roughly $30,000. And if you will, the entry number is 1001, 1002, 1003, and they continue until we get June 16th, when the amount of those entries is increased to 60,000, and it continues into July. It looks like it continues all the way to December. The last one of those entries is 1021, $60,000. The information I have is that on a biweekly basis someone from Universal Express would call Compupay and say make this entry, but that no check was entered; is that correct?
A. Oh, you'd have to check with the controller. I don't know the process of how they did it.
Q. Did you receive a biweekly check, initially in the amount of $30,000 starting in March of 2006, and then in June changing to the amount of $60,000?
A. If that's what the document dictates and that's what Compupay paid me, then that's what I received.
Q. Well, I guess I am trying to distinguish here. This is a record they kept. I want to know, did you receive a physical check?
A. I always received a check and Saadia would deposit it into our checking account when she went to make deposits.
Q. When we summarized the 2006 deposits, we see the series of-- I think I only have one of these. We see the series of deposits where you and your wife's paychecks are made, 1,600 for her, 16,000 and change for you, and then occasionally we see three or four checks that we had marked as Exhibit 9. But I don't see starting in March of 2006 periodic deposits into your account of 30,000 every two weeks, and then starting in June, 60,000 every two weeks.
A. I think you'd have to check with the controller because that's where it would come from, and that's who would have paid me.
MR. TIFFORD: Can I ask a question now?
MS. HUGHES: Yes.
MR. TIFFORD: Maybe focus in the event it does, do you recall, Mr. Altomare, if these telephone advices to Compupay have anything to do with transitioning accrued, but unpaid, salary into current salary, for purposes of--or on your loan account for purposes of transitioning them into current salary for tax purposes, income tax purposes?
THE WITNESS: It might have been what they decided to do, yes.
MR. TIFFORD: Who would be the source --
THE WITNESS: It would be Saadia Hardial.
MR. TIFFORD: Would anybody else be a source that would be able to help SEC counsel on this subject or on this question?
THE WITNESS: Not that I'm aware of.
A. I -- I guess I am -- I just wanted to -- I see a -- I can't ask. I can't ask questions.
Q. You may ask a question.
A. I see two dental things here.
Q. Correct.
A. I just would like to clarify that we had an employee who came to work for us, who had some problems with her teeth, and so I sent her to my personal dentist, and we were going to take it out of her salary, and then she quit after we fixed her teeth. So I think that that might be why the Dr. Epstein bill was in there, but I never had Universal Express pay my dentist for me.
Q. Just to clarify, these are the deposits that were coming into your account. So for some reason you got a refund from Dr. Epstein and that $70 is reflected in that refund.
A. Okay.
Q. Just for purposes of clarity in the record, we will mark this document, that's the summary of the deposits into your Wachovia account 5480, as Exhibit Number 12.
(Plaintiffs Exhibit 12, summary of deposits into Wachovia account 5480, marked for identification, as of this date.)
MS. HUGHES: I don't have another one.
MR. TIFFORD: I'll use this version of the exhibit.
Q. I am going to put 11 and 12 in front of you. In particular I want to focus on the two deposits that are bolded, the $20,000 deposit on March 7th, and the $75,000 deposit on April 10th.
A. Those were the two checks that we previously looked at?
Q. Correct. And you have testified a few minutes ago that this was converting your accrued salary into actual salary, in essence?
A. That's correct.
Q. When I look at the Compupay transaction, I don't see either of those transactions listed here.
A. Okay.
Q. Why?
A. You'd have to ask Saadia, but they are salaries.
Q. Periodically or monthly, Universal Express would pay one or more of your credit card bills?
A. Those segments of the bill that related to business, yes, ma'am.
Q. And if they paid a segment of the bill which related to a personal expenditure, such as buying a suit or something like that, was that considered salary to you?
A. Yes, it was.
Q. Why are those kind of transactions not reflected in this Compupay sheet?
A. I can't tell you that. You would have to ask Saadia, but they were.
Q. They were what?
A. Compensation.
Q. Compensation to you?
A. Compensation.
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