Posted on: Tuesday, June 18, 2002

Financier targeted in Marcos case

Associated Press

Attorneys trying to enforce a judgment that has grown to more than $3 billion against the estate of the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos asked a federal judge in Honolulu yesterday to impose sanctions against a Swiss financier for failing to cooperate in the case.

Visiting U.S. District Judge Manuel Real delayed ruling on the motion after attorneys agreed to make one final attempt to arrange a deposition from Jean-Paul Sunier of Suntrust, a Swiss financial corporation.

"We've been struggling for many years to try to recover money that was owned by Ferdinand Marcos," plaintiffs' attorney Robert Swift said. "It now appears that we're finally going to take the deposition of a Swiss financier who parked that money for Marcos for these many years, so I'm hopeful that the information will be helpful."

The class-action lawsuit by 9,539 Filipinos was filed against the Marcos estate in 1986, the year Marcos was deposed and fled to Hawai'i.

He died in 1989.

In 1995, a Honolulu jury awarded plaintiffs $1.9 billion after finding Marcos responsible for summary executions, disappearances and torture.

The judgment was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December 1996, but the plaintiffs had trouble collecting money from foreign accounts with contested ownership.

The total amount of the settlement today, with interest, is about $3.1 billion, Swift said.

Jack Cullen, an attorney for Suntrust, suggested that both sides make an offer to depose Sunier under certain restrictions that would allow the financier to avoid incriminating himself.