Marcos Pleads 5th Amendment : Questioned on Charges He Stole $2 Billion

Deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos pleaded the Fifth Amendment dozens of times Tuesday as attorneys representing the Philippine government questioned him for more than four hours on allegations that he robbed his country of billions of dollars.

The government has charged that Marcos, his wife, Imelda, and close relatives and friends removed the money from the Philippine treasury in a 20-year scheme patterned after a criminal syndicate.

Sitting in the oceanfront dining room of his seaside retreat in Honolulu’s fashionable Kahala district, the aging, exiled leader refused to answer questions about his total net worth, about allegations that he amassed a personal fortune in real estate and cash, about the funds he is using to live on while in exile and about documents that indicate he and his wife have hundreds of millions of dollars hidden in Swiss bank accounts.

At the end of Tuesday’s court-ordered deposition, Marcos told the lawyers he was invoking the Fifth Amendment, which protects an accused from self-incrimination, because some of the questions had no basis in fact.

When the lawyers asked him which questions he found objectionable, Marcos again took the Fifth Amendment.

The deposition is a major step by the Philippine government in its effort to recover what government lawyers and investigators now estimate is $2 billion in cash and real estate that the Marcoses’ and their associates allegedly siphoned from the Philippine treasury between 1966 and 1986.

Imelda Marcos was present during much of Tuesday’s deposition. She sat near her husband, fingering a rosary, but said nothing.

The Philippine government attorneys said Tuesday night that they are hoping to take depositions from the former First Lady today. They said they suspended the examination of Marcos because of his consistent refusal to answer the charges.

A Videotape Crew

Accompanying the American and Filipino lawyers was a court-approved videotape crew. They filmed the 70-year-old former leader as he was questioned, under oath, concerning charges backed by thousands of documents that the lawyers have amassed since Marcos fled Manila amid a civilian-backed military coup in February.

The lawyers contend that the documents prove that the Marcoses engaged in “racketeering activities” and criminal violations.

The activities allegedly included mail fraud, wire fraud, extortion, theft of American and Japanese aid money, transportation of stolen property, illegal “laundering” of funds in the United States and establishment of more than half a dozen Swiss bank accounts to hide money taken from the government.

Case Filed in L.A.

The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, where the Philippine government filed its case against the Marcoses, ruled in September that Marcos’ testimony and the video-tapes should be made public when the depositions are completed.

The government’s complaint, filed in mid-August, names Marcos, his wife, six of their close relatives and friends and five corporations that they allegedly used to hide their so-called hidden wealth.

It charges that “during Mr. Marcos’ 20 years as president of the Philippines, Mr. and Mrs. Marcos created a network of family members, close associates and government officials for the purpose of engaging in systematic and continuous exploitation.”

“This network was set up in the fashion of an organized criminal syndicate,” the complaint says.

“The general purpose” of the network, it says, “was to convert to the use and personal benefit of its members and their friends, families and associates, money, funds and property belonging to the Republic of the Philippines.”

To explain their bringing the case in the United States, the lawyers say in their complaint that “large amounts of Mr. and Mrs. Marcos’ holdings are now held by or for Mr. and Mrs. Marcos in California, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey and Switzerland.”

Some of the documents involved were found in the presidential palace after the Marcoses fled. Others were among the $8.2 million in cash, jewelry, bank statements and other papers seized by U.S. Customs agents when the Marcos party of 89 people arrived in Hawaii on Feb. 27.

Use of Swiss Accounts

On Tuesday, the government made public documents that show, according to the lawyers, that the Marcoses began using Swiss bank accounts as early as 1968 to hide illegal assets.

Using the false names William Saunders and Jane Ryan, Marcos and his wife allegedly established secret accounts at the Swiss Credit Bank in Zurich, in March, 1968, by transferring an opening deposit of $950,000 through a Beverly Hills bank.

The current balance in those accounts, according to the lawyers, is now “approximately $900 million.”

The government complaint contends that after Marcos declared martial law, in September, 1972, abolishing the legislature and assuming sweeping personal powers, he “accumulated the power and influence of a dictator, and used this power and influence for his own personal benefit.”

In 1974, the government contends, Marcos and his associates used strong-arm tactics and extortion to acquire for their personal ownership the Philippines’ largest television network and Manila’s mammoth electric company.

It says that Marcos and his associates used Imelda Marcos’ brother, Benjamin Romualdez, who served as ambassador to the United States, as a front to acquire controlling interest in the Manila Electric Co., the largest utility in the Philippines, and the ABS-CBN Television and Radio Network.

Both companies were acquired from the family of Manila businessman Eugenio Lopez Sr. The government says Lopez’s son was imprisoned and that Lopez was told that he would be released only if the Lopez family relinquished ownership of the two corporations.

Caribbean Bases

The complaint says further that the Marcoses used corporations based in the Netherlands Antilles and the Cayman Islands, also in the Caribbean, managed by Filipino sugar magnate Roberto S. Benedicto and banana exporter Antonio O. Floirendo, to secretly acquire:

--A $4-million property in Beverly Hills, in November, 1983.

--Controlling interest in the $19-million California Overseas Bank in Beverly Hills, beginning in November, 1976.

--A $600,000 estate called “The Cedars” near Natchez, Miss., in April, 1984.

--Numerous other bank accounts in California totaling at least $3 million in the early 1980s.

--Swiss bank accounts totaling nearly $1 billion.

‘Exceeding $2 Billion’

In all, the government contends, the Marcoses “amassed a personal fortune exceeding $2 billion.” And it says this took place over a 20-year period when, according to their Philippine tax returns, the Marcoses declared an after-tax income of $337,429.

“They acquired virtually all of this wealth by fraudulently converting monies, funds and properties of the Philippines and its people to their personal use and that of their friends, family and associates,” the complaint says.

The government’s case, which may not go to trial until next year, asks the court to order the Marcoses to return the $2 billion to the Philippine treasury, which now owes more than $26 billion to commercial banks worldwide.

In addition, the complaint says the Marcoses “are guilty of oppression, fraud and malice, and (the Philippine government) is therefore entitled to punitive damages in the amount of $50 billion.”