FOES OF MARCOS SEEK FREEZE ON U.S. REAL ESTATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201030002-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: February 27, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

I e-OCAOCR
Di Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/10: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0201030002-7
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
27 February 1986
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Foes of Marcos
seek freeze on
U.S. real estate
By Pete Carey
and Carl M. Cannon
Ing War Washington Buraaa
Opponents of former Philippine
President Ferdinand E. Marcos have
launched a drive to persuade the
Reagan administration to freeze Mar-
cos' US. real estate holdings until
they can be returned to the Filipino
people.
Marcos and his wife, (melds, own
real estate in New York and New
Jersey worth about $350 million,
some of it possibly purchased with
money diverted from U.S. foreign-aid
payments, according to a congres-
sional investigating committee. In
addition, Marcos may own properties
in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las
Vegas and Reno, Nevada.
The Central Intelligence Agency
estimates a arcos an is w e
have $3 billion in assets outside the
Phili ines, according to con res-
siona experts. The experts say the
figure g may be conservative.
several opposition groups have an-
nounced plans to file lawsuits for the
return to the Philippine government
of the money used to buy the proper-
ties. And in Congress, a move has
been launched to join the battle to
recover what is believed to be bil-
lions of dollars in real estate and
other investments in the U.S.
Allegations of secret overseas in-
vestments by Marcos and his top gov-
ernment officials became a major
campaign issue during the recent
election.
Rep. George Miller (D., Calif.),
asked Attorney General Edwin
Meese 3d on Tuesday to freeze "ex-
tensive U.S. holdings" investigated
recently by the House subcommittee
on Asian and Pacific affairs. The
holdings include several New York
office buildings and other assets in
the New York area.
Miller, who already has asked for
similar action regarding properties
of deposed Haitian ruler Jean-Claude
Duvalier, asked Meese to consider
"freezing the Marcos holdings until
it is determined whether taxpayer
funds were misappropriated, and
whether there is lawful means for
proceeding against Mr. Marcos to re-
cover the value of any funds which
he appropriated for his own use."
The New York assets include three
Manhattan office buildings: the
Crown Building on Fifth Avenue, the
Herald Center department store on
Broadway and 40 Wall St., one of the
tallest office towers in New York's
financial district.
The buildings' value was estimated
in recent congressional hearings at
$300 million. Another New York
property is a 14-acre estate known as
Lindenmere in Center Moriches, a
town on Long Island. Imelda Marcos
is reported to have paid $19 million
for it in 1981.
The properties are all owned by
overseas corporations that are not
required to list the names of share.
holders. The buildings reportedly
are for sale, and congressional
sources say they may be purchased
by the New York real estate firm
believed to have assisted the Mar-
coses in buying the buildings.
Congressional sources said the
freeze request may also extend to
banks in California that have been
singled out in published reports and
congressional hearings as possibly
belonging to Marcos or top officials
in his now-fallen government.
Meanwhile, Rep. Stephen J. Solarz
(D., N.Y.), chairman of the House
subcommittee that investigated Mar-
cos' U.S. investments, introduced leg-
islation in Congress yesterday that
would allow a foreign government to
recover a former leader's assets in
the United States if those assets were
the result of corrupt dealings.
A spokesman for the congressman
said that Solarz was also considering
seeking a court injunction to stop
the sale of the New York properties.
In an interview several weeks ago,
Solarz said the possibility that "some
of the hundreds of millions of dol-
lars a year we're providing in mili-
tary and economic assistance to the
Philippines ... may have been di-
verted into lucrative investments in
the name of the first family of the
Philippines suggests that the money
of the taxpayers of the country is not
being spent for the purposes in-
tended."
Solarz said Marcos' ability to amass
such holdings on a presidential sal-
ary of $5,700 a year suggests "either
that he has a very good investment
adviser or that he has corruptly ac-
quired the resources with which to
purchase these properties."
Michael Lewan, Solarz's chief of
staff, said Tuesday that the subcom-
mittee's legal counsel was "looking
at the possibility to get on the fast-
track legislation which would freeze
Philippine assets here in the U.S."
"We may, along with some other
people, go into court to get an injunc-
tion to prevent the sale of the New
York properties," said Lewan.
A purchase by the brokers. Joseph
and Ralph Bernstein, from the off-
shore corporations that now hold
title to them would simply make it
more difficult to recover the proper-
ties, said Lewan.
Among those holdings reportedly
is a 13-acre estate in Lawrence, N.J.,
owned by Marcos through a a
dummy corporation, Faylin Limited
Corp., based in the British Virgin
Islands. Members of the House sub-
committee on Asian and Pacific af-
fairs, during recent hearings on Mar-
cos' United States holdings, charged
that Faylin is a dummy corporation
controlled by the Marcos family.
Norman T. Callaway, owner of N.T
Callaway Real Estate in Princeton,
said the property at 3850 Princeton
Ptkc was put on the market in Octo-
ber with an asking price of $825,000
and withdrawn Jan. 24.
"I think the attention the media
was giving it the housel concerned
them,'' Callaway said.
Callaway said the property had
13.34 acres of land and a six-bed-
room, 51/2-bath house that dated back
to the 18th century. Published re-
ports have said Marcos' daughter,
Imee, lived in the house during the
1970s while she was a student at
Princeton University.
Romeo Capulong, a New York law-
yer and member of the Lawyers Com-
mittee on Human Rights in the Phil-
ippines, said he believed the U.S.
government had the power to force
the return of any Philippine govern.
ment money used by Marcos to make
the U.S. investments.
. The recovery attempt, he said,
should include all top Marcos offi.
cials, relatives and cronies whose
investments could be shown to have
been made with illegally obtained
funds.
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"They should go after all these ? Three Manhattan condomini.
People," Capulong said. "They are ums owned or once owned by Edna
the vultures. They should go after Camcam, a close associate of Gen.
the brothers and sisters, the sisters Ver. The property includes two con.
in-law ... the generals who have dominiums at 80 Park Ave., New
made a lot of money." York City, bought by Camcam in
Ironically, one of those singled out 1983; and a third condominium at 402
for his U.S. investments in news re- E. 90th St., New York, also purchased
ports and opposition statements is in 1983, according to the Village
Aquino's new defense minister, Juan Voice newspaper.
Ponce Enrile, one of the two leaders Meanwhile, several international
of the military mutiny against Mar- law experts said there were ample
cos last weekend. His purchases of a legal means to force a return of the
Pacific Heights, Calif., mansion and money used to make investments if it
two condominiums in San Francisco was found to have been obtained
were reported in a San Jose Mercury illegally.
News series last year on overseas The Iranian government has had
investment by top Filipino leaders. difficulty recovering property from
Among those with property in the the family of the shah, but it has not
U.S., the series reported, are a sister been on friendly terms with the
of Marcos, a brother of his wife, and United States and is in a slightly
the son of Gen. Fabian Ver, who different legal situation, according
headed the Phillipine armed forces to experts.
and who was acquitted of the murder Iran is using as its basis for recov-
of opposition leader Benigno Aquino. ery an executive agreement reached
Recent checks of property records with President Jimmy Carter on the
uncovered: final day of his administration, ac-
? Two houses and a vacant lot in cording to Stanford professor Tom
Los Angeles County owned by Mar- Campbell.
cos' youngest sister, Fortuna Marcos According to Harvard law profes
Barba, whose husband was a colonel sor Detlev Vagts, Marcos could be
in the Philippine military. Property prosecuted for embezzlement.
tax records showed an estimated Since many of the holdings are in
market value on the two homes of the names of secretive corporations
$139,000 and $150,000, and a purchase based in the Netherlands Antilles,
price on the vacant lot of $150,000. Vagts suggested that Marcos would
? Nine pieces of property in Ran- have to testify about his ownership
cho Murieta, a suburb of Sacramento, of any U.S. properties.
which belong to a brother of Imelda
Marcos, Armando T. Romualdez. The
value of the properties was not
known.
? A Cherry Hill, N.J., house at 4
Capshire Drive, bought Nov. 23, 1978,
by Col. Julian L. Antolin Jr., a close
associate of Irwin P. Ver and a for-
mer attache to the Philippine New
York Consulate. Real estate records
show that the home was transferred
to Ver, son of Gen. Ver, on Nov. 26,
1979.
Z
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201030002-7