$8-M Swiss deposits of FM crony forfeited

The Sandiganbayan has ordered the forfeiture of some $8 million in Swiss deposits of a close aide of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, ending 20 years of a protracted legal battle.

Presiding Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Justices Diosdado Peralta and Efren de la Cruz, all of the anti-graft court’s first division, ruled that the Panamanian firm GEI Inc.’s account at Adler Bank in Zurich belongs to Fe Roa-Gimenez, Marcos’ social secretary, and her husband Ignacio.

The ruling, contained in a 26-page decision penned by De Castro, was in compliance with the condition set by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, which threatened to lift its freeze order if a Philippine court does not render any definitive ruling before the year ends.

If the freeze order is lifted, the government loses its claim on the illegally acquired wealth of Gimenez, who was a close aide of Marcos from 1981 to 1985, and the couple can withdraw the whole amount or even close the account.

Commissioner Nick Conti of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said the Sandiganbayan ruling will be transmitted "electronically" to the Philippine embassy in Zurich to ensure that the government beats the Swiss Supreme Court’s Dec. 31 deadline.

He also explained that the embassy will certify the electronic copy of the ruling as "official" so as to allow PCGG special counsel Sergio Salvioni to make representations with the Swiss court.

"This is a very welcome development and an attestation to the commission’s unrelenting effort to fulfill our mandate, which is to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family and their cronies," Conti said.

He said the PCGG is currently preparing a petition to ask the Swiss court to repatriate the accounts under the names of the Gimenez couple and Roberto Olanday.

Court records show that in July 1985, Ignacio Gimenez created Guaranteed Education Inc., a company selling pre-need educational plans, with a declared authorized stock capitalization of P10 million.

He then personally subscribed to 96 percent of the total GEI shares while the rest of the incorporators, including his half-brother, Roberto Olanday, held nominal shares worth P100 each.

In July 1986, another entity was registered in Panama as "GEI Inc." with Olanday as one of the first directors and officers.

When Marcos was toppled in February 1986, Ignacio Gimenez went to Hong Kong and opened account number 02-004208-02 with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) through its branch in Zurich. A month later, he went to Los Angeles, California and had his name changed to Johnny Salvador Lee.

In April of the same year, directors of the Panama-based GEI Inc. issued a resolution for opening a second account in HSBC-Zurich. In the same resolution, Olanday and Johnny Salvador Lee were given exclusive authority to represent the company in all transactions with the bank.

Gimenez directed HSBC to transfer all his deposits in his first account to the GEI Inc. account. The transfer was completed on April 24,1986.

After this, for more than a decade, documents obtained by the PCGG that it submitted to the Sandiganbayan showed no significant movement or transaction pertaining to the GEI bank account.

In February 1997, the board of directors of GEI Inc., issued a resolution to close the company’s HSBC bank account. On April 1997, GEI Inc. opened account number 597510 at Adler Bank with Olanday listed as the beneficial owner.

In September of the same year, the PCGG verified that the bank account contained $3.202 million and DM 3.094 million. The commission said the deposit has since grown and is now more than $8 million.

"The creation and dissolution of corporations, the use of pseudonym, the series of transactions or transfers of funds which eventually reached the hands of Olanday as owner without the respondents having been able to state the substance of their defense ….all constitute a pattern that has been considered as a scheme to hide ill-gotten wealth …which will warrant the forfeiture of the said wealth in favor of the state," the Sandiganbayan ruled. — With Sandy Araneta