ad info


Asiaweek TIMEASIA.com CNN.com
 > magazine
 home
 intelligence
 web features
 magazine archive
 technology
 newsmap
 customer service
 subscribe
 TIMEASIA.COM
 CNN.COM
  east asia
  southeast asia
  south asia
  central asia
  australasia
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 SHOWBIZ
 ASIA WEATHER
 ASIA TRAVEL

Other News
TIME.com
TIME Europe
FORTUNE.com
FORTUNE China
MONEY.com
Asiaweek Services
Contact Asiaweek
About Asiaweek
Media Kit
Get up to 3 months of Asiaweek free when you subscribe online!


AUGUST 11 , 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 31 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK

Other People's Money
A conspiracy case in Hong Kong involves Marcos bank accounts
By ALEJANDRO REYES

ALSO
Battle of the Big Shots:
The race for the prime ministership is on
'We are Stronger now': Chalerm on the NAP's future prospects

On July 27, Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) charged four people for allegedly conspiring to bribe employees of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. in return for help accessing certain HSBC bank accounts. Prosecutor Kevin Zervos said that the four defendants had signed a deal in December 1999 with Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos's widow Imelda to withdraw more than $2.6 billion of Marcos money deposited in Hong Kong in HSBC and the Bank of China. She promised to give the bounty hunters a 35% cut of whatever they could retrieve. No withdrawal was made and the ICAC arrested the four in March. They have been freed on bail.

In the Philippines, human rights lawyer Rod Domingo accused Imelda Marcos of trying to get around a global freeze order on her family's deposits. "Her hand has been caught dipping into the cookie jar," he said. "It looks like the evidence [in the case] is air-tight." The ICAC is not accusing Marcos of any involvement in the alleged bribery. For her part, the former jet-setting First Lady wasn't talking. But her lawyer Rafael Ramos confirmed that his client had authorized businesswoman Chuk Oi-fong, one of the Hong Kong defendants, to act on her behalf. He said in a statement that Marcos "only entertained the proposal in her ardent desire to find sources to fund the human rights settlement and in accordance with the orders of the court." In a 1998 settlement with more than 9,000 human-rights victims of the deposed dictator's regime who filed a class-action lawsuit against his estate, a U.S. district court in Hawaii ordered the Marcos family to pay $150 million to the claimants. Ramos said that he ended the agreement with Chuk soon after she had been authorized by Imelda to act on her behalf. The reason: "There was some misinformation about the transaction proposed."

Marcos, meanwhile, remains barred from traveling abroad, though she was permitted to visit the U.S. late last year for eye treatment. It was in fact when she was in New York that Chuk approached her. Some Marcos critics say that the Hong Kong case proves that Manila has achieved little in its 14-year quest to recover the family's hidden wealth. They have called on Hong Kong banks to reveal the extent of the Marcoses' deposits in the city. For years, the Philippine government has been working to retrieve about $630 million in Marcos deposits in Switzerland which in 1997 the Swiss Supreme Court finally ruled had been "criminally acquired."

According to Jovito Salonga, who served as the first head of the commission assigned to oversee the retrieval effort, as of May 2000, the government had recovered almost $2 billion. In a just-published book, Salonga alleges that even before taking office in 1998, President Joseph Estrada "had been peddling the myth" that nothing has been recovered "in the desire to convince the nation that it would be better to reach a compromise agreement with the Marcoses than incur more litigation expenses." Just how much more wealth might the government claim? "We practically own everything in the Philippines," Imelda famously asserted in 1998, saying that the Marcos fortune held by cronies she referred to as "trustees" amounted to about 500 billion pesos — or $11 billion.

With reporting by Antonio Lopez/Manila and Yulanda Chung/Hong Kong


Write to Asiaweek at mail@web.asiaweek.com

This edition's table of contents | Asiaweek.com Home

AsiaNow


Quick Scroll: More stories from Asiaweek, TIME and CNN

   LATEST HEADLINES:

WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'

MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency

ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers

TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample

BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner



TIME:

COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials

CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture

PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election

WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state



ASIAWEEK:

COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global

Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short

TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes

JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


Launch CNN's Desktop Ticker and get the latest news, delivered right on your desktop!

Today on CNN
 Search
  ASIAWEEK'S LATEST
Web-only Exclusives
November 30, 2000

From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War
A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix

From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead
Bad news for the Philippines - and some others

From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies
Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights?


  THIS EDITION

COVER: Giant on the Move
An emerging Asian superpower
On the Move: The people who are reshaping the nation
Worth Knowing: People with a role to play as India grows
The Economy: Risk-takers and innovators take center-stage
Wealth: The big six
Question Time: An interview with Azim Hashim Premji
Personally Speaking: Distinguished Indians scan the way ahead
The Military: Adding muscle in a bid for a regional role
The Media: Tough competition in a free and lively environment
Mass Culture: From beauty to fashion, India sets the pace

ASIAWEEK.COM
COVER: Playing the Modern Game
Improve your golf game with better technology

Face Off: Audio recorders

Healthcare: Take care on websites for the unwell

Net Gains: Be wary of stock tips in chat rooms

E-vesting: The high cost of online trading

Asiaweek/CNN Tech Index: The Asiaweek/CNN basket of 40 companies

B2B: Learning the job online

Wired Exec: A Manila publisher at work and play

Cutting Edge: Point, shoot and print — digitally

EDITORIALS
Troops: Why America may have to pull its soldiers out of Asia

Pyongyang: Is there substance behind its new, improved style?

Letters & Comment: UMNO on the changes within

THE NATIONS

ASEAN: North Korea steals the limelight at the Bangkok meeting
Agreement: Rail uniting the Koreas
Interview: With East Timor's Gusmao and Ramos-Horta

INDONESIA: Who bombed the Philippine ambassador?

THAILAND: The big parties are gearing up for the general election
Interview: Chalerm on the NAP's future prospects

Scandals: Imelda is caught with her hand in the cookie jar

KASHMIR: A ceasefire brings hopes of peace — maybe

Newsmakers: Reading Anson Chan's moves

Viewpoint: Time to re-examine sanctions on Myanmar

BUSINESS
Performance: Is Hong Kong's GEM the worst stock exchange?
Competition: How Asia's other second-boards are doing

Investing: Stay the course in telecommunications and electronics

Insurance: Agents scramble to sell the mainland peace of mind
Charge: Card issuers expect China's consumers to embrace credit

Business Buzz: The teetering house of Hyundai


Back to the top   © 2000 Asiaweek. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.