Honolulu lawyer returns to Islands
By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Honolulu lawyer Ben Cassiday sneaked out of the Philippines last week and came home. Although the Philippine government had blocked him from leaving the country, Cassiday said he smuggled himself out.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
"One day when the people (who helped me) are safe and I can talk about it, I'll explain it to you, but I will tell you that it was a week sojourn through Abu Sayyaf territory," Cassiday said, referring to the Islamic rebel group based in the southern Philippines and linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Lawyer Ben Cassiday was sued by his colleagues.
Cassiday's trip home, which took him through Mindanao, Borneo and Malaysia, was another leg in a six-year journey that began after billionaire American businessman Larry Hillblom's seaplane crashed off Saipan in 1995.
Cassiday and many other lawyers and investigators searched the fleshpots and backwater villages of Vietnam, the Philippines and elsewhere, looking for illegitimate offspring of Hillblom who could make a claim against his massive estate.
Hillblom was co-founder of DHL Worldwide Express, the international air cargo company. He was well known for bedding very young women around the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Cassiday ended up representing three Filipino children who eventually were proved not to be Hillblom's children, but Cassiday says he still got the children $7 million.
One of the other lawyers in the case "said that I spun straw into gold, that's how he worded it," Cassiday said.
Taxes whittled the settlement down to $4.6 million. After attorney's fees and other expenses, the total was reduced to about $2.1 million. That money is now in court-controlled bank accounts in Saipan and the Philippines, and people with no legitimate claims to the money are still trying to get their hands on it, Cassiday said.
One of them is a former Ferdinand Marcos associate named Jose "Joey" Marfori whom Cassiday hired to find possible Hillblom offspring.
Marfori found Jocelyn Nonan, a former girlfriend of Hillblom who had three children purportedly fathered by Hillblom.
"All along, I was assured by Jose Marfori that these kids were legitimate (heirs)," Cassiday said.
He said there was compelling evidence that Jocelyn Nonan had had a long-term relationship with Hillblom, evidence that included photographs and financial records.
But Cassiday said he discovered that the middle child could not possibly be Hillblom's.
"At the time of conception, Larry Hillblom was in the hospital in California recovering from another airplane accident so he could not have been the father," he said.
DNA tests then revealed that all three children were sired by the same man, Cassiday said, so he knew his clients couldn't possibly be Hillblom's children.
The situation left Cassiday in a quandary: drop the case or continue to tough it out. He opted for the latter.
"So I just gut it out, play poker with these guys and settle for seven million bucks," he said.
In January, Marfori filed civil and criminal charges against Cassiday in the Philippines, claiming that the lawyer reneged on a deal to pay Marfori 10 percent of whatever money was recovered for the Nonan children. Marfori could not be reached for comment last week.
Cassiday was arrested, posted bail and managed to get the criminal charge dropped temporarily, but he was barred from leaving the country pending "re-investigation" of the case, he said.
"They made up this case," he said. "Trumped-up charges, as they say in the Philippines."
A motion to dismiss the case entirely will be heard in July, said Cassiday.
"They wanted to hold me hostage in the Philippines so that I'll pay them," said Cassiday.
He said that was why he slipped out of the country.
Cassiday and the children's legal custodian, Carlito Ruiz, said the children are safe and well-cared for. And their money is safe for now, Cassiday said.
In addition to Marfori's claims, Cassiday is being sued here by lawyer John Perkin, who said he's owed $180,000 in Hillblom-related expenses.
Another lawyer in Saipan won an $83,000 judgment against Cassiday in a similar claim. That ruling is under appeal.
Cassiday said he believes everyone involved has been paid what they're owed. He himself received about "a half million dollars" in fees, but he said that's substantially less than other lawyers received and he's still incurring expenses that he won't recover.
Another hearing will be held in Saipan to determine if more fees and expenses have to be paid.
Cassiday said he's not sure if the legal wrangling will ever be over.
The Hillblom fortune "is like a big honey pot sitting there and everyone wants to get at it," he said.
Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2447.
