Theodore von Kármán was one of the people who tried to learn what caused the collapse. He was the director of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory and a well known aerodynamicist. He said that the State of Washington could not get money from one of the insurance policies for the bridge. This was because its insurance agent had fraudulently taken the insurance pyments. The agent, Hallett R. French worked for the Merchant's Fire Assurance Company. He was charged with grand larceny for keeping the payments for $800,000 worth of insurance. The bridge was insured by many other policies. These covered 80% of the $5.2 million bridge's value. Most of these were payed without problems.