Phillipines Enquiry Hears About Marcos Money In Liechtenstein

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

16 May 2002

An enquiry into funds said to have been illicitly extracted from the Philippines by the then President Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos heard this week that a number of highly placed individuals in Liechtenstein know about the $400 million of Marcos money stashed in the principality but are bound by bank secrecy rules.

Newspaper the Phillipine Daily Enquirer says that a Canadian-English barrister, known only as Madame Z, identified the four as Peter Sprenger and Ulrich Siegfried of Limag AG, a member of the Credit Suisse Group, and Isador Kohler and Peter Herzog of KPMG, which provides financial services to high-level individuals.

The four could be questioned by Swiss, Liechtenstein and Philippine authorities about the transfer of Marcos funds from Switzerland to Liechtenstein just before a Swiss freeze order took effect on March 24, 1986.

Sprenger is currently the Speaker of the Vaterlandische Union, the largest party in the Liechtenstein Parliament (Landtag) until the 2001 election. He is also the president of Limag Management und Verwaltungs AG or Limag AG, where at least $400 million in Marcos money was transferred in 1986, says the newspaper.

A report submitted to the enquiry by David Chaikin, a lawyer and anti-money laundering expert, says Sprenger is also the president of Limag Management. "Limag AG is physically located in the same building as Credit Suisse Trust AG in Vaduz, Liechtenstein," Chaikin said.

Based on his investigation, Chaikin found out that Sprenger became a director of Limag AG after Dr. Ivo Beck, a known Marcos asset manager and former chair of Limag AG, died in September 1991.

"In effect, Dr. Sprenger 'inherited' Limag AG from Dr. Ivo Beck who was the original president of Limag AG. Similarly, Dr. Sprenger 'inherited' another Liechtenstein company, Administral Anstalt, from Dr. Beck," Chaikin said.

Chaikin said documents found in Malacanang Palace in 1986 showed that Siegfried was an authorized signatory of Limag AG in Credit Suisse on accounts held for a number of Marcos Liechtenstein foundations.

"The official Liechtenstein corporate records of Limag AG confirm that Ulrich Siegfried was vice president of Limag AG in 1978 when Dr. Ivo Beck was President. Ulrich Siegfried continued to have a significant role in Limag AG until at least March 1998," Chaikin said.

Limag Management and Administration and Beck were in fact appointed to the board of Avertina Foundation "who will jointly sign in twos for the foundation," said the official certification of Avertina Foundation dated May 13, 1981 from the Office of the Public Register in Vaduz.

Sources said Limag AG and Beck, when he was still alive, were needed by the Marcoses to get to their funds in Avertina Foundation because of their joint signatory function for the foundation.

"There is a paucity of information about Limag AG apart from the official Liechtenstein corporate records," Chaikin said.

He said that Limag AG was registered as a fiduciary in Liechtenstein and had an extremely low profile, even by Liechtenstein standards.

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