Timber company wants civil contempt finding

Business always wants attorney fees paid in lawsuit against couple

TEXARKANA, Texas — A timber investment company is seeking a finding of civil contempt and just over $17,000 in attorney fees in connection with a Maud, Texas, couple’s violation of a court order prohibiting the liquidation of assets.

Georgia-based Forest Investment Associates complains in a civil suit filed in May that April Thompson and James Thompson conspired over an eight-year period to defraud the company of more than $4 million through phony invoices generated at a local timber management company where April Thompson once worked as an account manager. Kingwood Forestry Services maintains offices in Texarkana, Texas; Monticello, Arkansas, and Arkadelphia, Arkansas. The complaint was later amended to include the Thompsons’ businesses, James Thompson Trucking and James Thompson Racing.

Early in the case, a court order prohibiting the Thompsons from liquidating assets or spending on anything other than “reasonable and necessary” daily living expenses was approved by U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas. FIA has filed a number of briefs detailing the Thompsons violations of the order including Hawaiin vacation spending and the sale of valuable coins, a race car and a commercial mower. In August both sides agreed to the appointment of a receiver to oversee the Thompsons’ finances.

At a hearing Oct. 11, Schroeder described the Thompsons’ violations as “brazen” and asked both sides for supplemental briefing. From the plaintiffs, Schroeder asked for an accounting of the expenses incurred investigating and briefing the defense’s noncompliance. From the defense, Schroeder asked for records detailing where the approximately $21,000 in proceeds of the sales of valuable coins in June and July by the Thompsons actually went.

Texarkana lawyer Darren Anderson said at the Oct. 11 hearing that the money was used to fund payroll and other expenses for

Thompson businesses. In a defense filing Oct. 17, a document signed by April Thompson lists cash and other business expenses and bank deposits.

The veracity of that and other financial documents are questioned by the plaintiffs in an Oct. 18 filing by Texarkana lawyer Geoffery Culbertson.

“Even assuming that the Thompsons deposited any of the cash from the coin sales, the $1,500 deposit Mrs. Thompson attributes to the July 31, 2019 sale occurred on August 1, 2019, one day prior to Mr. Thompson cashing the check from East Texas Coin,” the plaintiff’s supplemental contempt filing states. “And $1,446.99 of the $3,946.99 bank deposit of August 2, 2019, that she alleges is ‘from the [coin] sale proceeds’ was actually a check from Lonestar Freightliner Group. Despite two bites at this apple, Mrs. Thompson can’t get her story straight. Her inconsistent and demonstrably false statements to the court further support a finding of contempt.”

The plaintiffs claim they are entitled to $17,066.50 from the Thompsons for attorney and other fees. But that is not all the plaintiffs are seeking.

Culbertson argues on behalf of FIA that the Thompsons continue to violate court orders with reckless spending and by “gifting” and transferring ownership of assets.

Specifically the contempt supplement points to a September trip to Dallas Motor Speedway which included the Thompsons allegedly footing the bill for seven people. While the supplement concedes that the tickets to the two-day race were purchased in February, the Thompsons spent an additional $1,690 during the trip.

“Shortly after FIA discovered this excursion, the Individual Defendants produced a receipt purporting to record a $2,000 “sponsorship” from William Pierce, April Thompson’s father. This revelation coincided with the production of two handwritten ‘bills of sale’ related to a mobile home and an automobile that, FIA learned in discovery, the Thompsons gifted to a friend and her daughter,” the supplement states.

The plaintiff alleges that the Thompsons have failed repeatedly to disclose assets in their possession including the car and mobile home they claim they gifted. To address the issue, the plaintiff is asking the court to order the Thompsons to identify all property worth more than $500 and purchased within the past 10 years which is currently in the possession of friends and family. The plaintiff wants

the Thompsons to “convey possession” and turn over keys to equipment and vehicles to the receiver managing their finances.

FIA also wants the Thompsons to stop participating in any racing activities and a court order preventing them from removing any race cars, engines or equipment from their property.

Texarkana lawyer Sean Rommell filed a response Friday lamenting that some equipment which the Thompsons bought in the last 10 years has been sold with the approval of the receiver and that additional sales of assets are pending which also have the receiver’s blessing. The response filed on the Thompsons’ behalves also laments that barring the defendants from participating in any racing activities is going too far.

“As to any racing activities and apart from any property under receiver control, plaintiff seeks to have restrained personal activities which may have no bearing on receivership property. Again, the relief as requested could put the Thompsons in jeopardy if they even attended, as spectators, a racing event. Defendants did agree and stated to the plaintiff that they would not further participate in racing events and use the racing equipment,” the defense response filed Friday states.

The defense response does not dispute the amount of attorney fees being sought by the plaintiff.

Meanwhile, the Thompsons are scheduled to appear Nov. 1 for arraignment on criminal charges pending against them in a federal court in the Northern District of Georgia in connection with their alleged fraud scheme with FIA. An 11-count indictment accuses the couple of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and of specific incidences of mail fraud.