Imelda wins in SC re: $75M money laundering case

The Supreme Court has affirmed a decision by the Court of Appeals to dismiss a case that sought to reverse the acquittal of Imelda Marcos, widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, of money laundering in connection with their secret Swiss bank accounts.

In a decision dated June 27 but made public only this week, the Supreme Court’s Third Division denied for lack of merit the petition for certiorari filed in 2008 by the late Solicitor General Frank Chavez. xxx

The case involved the 18 bank accounts in Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland, which were discovered to have been opened and maintained by the Marcos couple from 1973 to 1985.

The foreign deposits, according to the 33 consolidated criminal complaints filed in 1991, violated Central Bank and other government regulations and were claimed as proof of the ill-gotten and hidden wealth of the Marcoses by President Corazon Aquino’s government.

SOURCE: SC upholds Imelda acquittal, scolds gov’t By: Jerome Aning - Reporter / @JeromeAningINQ Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:26 AM September 22, 2018 Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1035016/sc-upholds-imelda-acquittal-scolds-govt#ixzz5SHjO5IMm Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
WHO IS IMELDA? Imelda Marcos is a Filipino politician and the widow of Ferdinand Marcos, the 10th president and former dictator of the Philippines. She served as First Lady from 1965 to 1986 during the presidency of her husband. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imelda_Marcos

THE MARCOS' WEALTH. Marcos allegedly owned assets worth US$10 billion. On one occasion, she spent $2,000 on chewing gum at the San Francisco International Airport and, on another, she forced a plane to do a U-turn mid-air just because she forgot to buy cheese in Rome. Her collection of shoes now lies partly in the National Museum of the Philippines and partly in a shoe museum in Marikina.

She allegedly owns Swiss bank accounts under the pseudonym "Jane Ryan". Her claimed fortune came from Yamashita's gold, a semi-mythical treasure trove that is widely believed in the Philippines to be part of the Japanese loot in World War II. Her property used to include jewels and a 175-piece art collection, which included works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Canaletto, Raphael, as well as Monet's L'Église et La Seine à Vétheuil (1881), Alfred Sisley's Langland Bay (1887), and Albert Marquet's Le Cyprès de Djenan Sidi Said (1946). SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imelda_Marcos#Wealth; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/10bn-dollar-question-marcos-millions-nick-davies