Secret accounts

Imee Marcos is at the center of the tax haven expose because records show she is among those who hold “secret accounts” in the British Virgin Islands. This is what rankles. Imee Marcos is only one side of the corrupt equation. The other side is whoever made it possible for Marcos to use the British Virgin Island bank as a tax haven. In other words, to focus on offenders should not preclude attacking the system that brought the corruption about.

*      *      *

It has been found out by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that Imee Marcos is a beneficiary of Sintra Trust.  Bank records show other beneficiaries as Ferdinand Richard Michael Marcos Manotoc, Matthew Joseph Marcos Manotoc, and Fernando Martin Marcos Manotoc, her children by estranged husband Tomas Manotoc.

She was also financial adviser as well of a company in which the Sintra Trust was a beneficial shareholder called ComCentre Corporation. It was formed in January 2002 in the BVI and still in operation; and a “master client” for the M Trust formed July 1997 in Labuan, Malaysia, and closed in July 2009. Documents also reveal a bank account with United Overseas Bank Limited, a financial institution in Singapore. Another record related to ComCentre on an account at HSBC. The PCGG said it would look into the account to find links to the other hidden billions that the Marcoses are believed to have deposited in Swiss banks.

*      *      *

This new discovery reinforces what the Operation Big Bird set out to do but failed after the Edsa People Power Revolution. How can the Philippine government get at the Marcos billions since they were deposited in secret accounts in Switzerland? Moreover, the Marcoses used pseudonyms for these accounts, William Saunders for Marcos and Jane Ryan for Imelda. This was revealed during the trial of Imelda in New York in 1990. But she was acquitted of any wrongdoing no matter that there were 300,000 documents and scores of witnesses presented.

For those who want a more complete narrative of Operation Big Bird it can be googled from the Internet. It is the incredible story of how a certain Mike De Guzman sought the help of the influential Gen. Jose T. Almonte to seek the approval of the Aquino government to draw up a plan for a sting operation. This was how the Iranian government got hold of moneys deposited by the Shah of Iran.

He knew Lebanese banker Victor Bou Dagher in Vienna, who had connections and knew insiders in the European banking network. These connections were needed to identify the accounts in question.

At the time of the February Revolution neither Marcos nor the Philippine government could get hold of the moneys in the accounts. Almonte was able to secure the cooperation of the Aquino government. De Guzman’s scheme was to get a power of attorney to act for Marcos as the beneficial owner of the accounts identified by Dagher.

All would have been well but the whole operation went kaput when the PCGG, then under Jovito Salonga, stopped it saying it would have been putting the Marcos billions in the hands of de Guzman and Almonte. When the order came from the Swiss authorities for the banks to release the moneys through a Marcos power of attorney, Almonte says the identified accounts already ran into billions. He was so miffed and tells friends that assuming it would have been deposited in Credit Manila, de Guzman’s bank in Vienna, it would have been much easier to get at it than from Swiss banks.

But with Manila reneging on its approval for Operation Big Bird the release of the moneys was stopped. Bankers said unless it were to be done this way the Swiss banks would disperse the Marcos money to various financial institutions. Swiss authorities were more concerned about safeguarding the deposits and avoiding a massive withdrawal than concern for a country that had been defrauded.

So where did the Marcos moneys go? Obviously they are still in the Swiss banking system or in other allied tax havens in the world financial network. Imee’s Sintra Trust could be among these lost accounts.

*      *      *

We would be naïve to focus on Imee’s account or the Marcoses’ political return if we do not understand the world financial system.

I am more interested in what a senior Lib Dem politician said about the tax haven in British Virgin Islands. Lord Oakeshott, the Lib Dem peer and a former Treasury spokesman said that secret offshore havens ‘stain face of Britain.’

“How can David Cameron keep a straight face calling for the G8 to make big business pay tax when we let the BVI use British law and British protection to suck in billions in dirty money?”

*      *      *

Wikipedia’s notes say “the use of differing tax laws between two or more countries to try to mitigate tax liability is probably as old as taxation itself.

“In ancient Greece, some of the Greek islands were used as depositories by the sea traders of the era to place their foreign goods to thus avoid the two-percent tax imposed by the city state of Athens on imported goods. It is sometimes suggested that the practice first reached prominence through the avoidance of the Cinque ports and later the staple ports in the 12th and 14th centuries respectively. In 1721, Amerian colonies traded from Latin America to avoid British taxes.

There other tax havens in the world but the first true tax haven was Switzerland. In Marcos’s case it had less to do with taxation as it was with its iron bank secrecy.“

*      *      *

Diplomatic pouch: In consonance with equal time, equal opportunity principle here’s the latest from the Chinese and Japanese embassies.

From the Chinese embassy, this column met with Mr. Ruan Zongze, Vice President of China Institute of International Studies(CIIS). He and other officials conducted a study tour in the Philippines from Mar. 30  to Apr. 2. There was a frank exchange on various issues with a group of columnists especially about the Spratly islands, the North Korean threat and the new Chinese administration led by President Xi Jin Ping.

*      *      *

Japan continues its courtship of Asean member countries through the JENESYS Program. The program brings to Japan many young people from Asia to promote exchanges. It will add another 30,000 youths to the 30,000 young people who previously traveled to Japan under the previous program.