Another U.S. bank Ferdinand Marcos bought to launder funds was Redwood Bank in San Francisco. Dewey Dee admitted he & Rolando Gapud were dummies of Marcos in buying the Bank breaking U.S. Federal Laws. PCGG recovered and sold Marcos’ shares in the bank for $6.8 million in 1999.
Chicago Tribune March 23, 1986 article MARCOS GRAFT STAGGERING excerpt:
In addition to stealing from foreign businesses and governments, Marcos and his cronies appear to have used a collection of banks in Manila, California and elsewhere, including their country`s own central bank, to steal directly from the government they controlled.
The most common scheme appears to have involved overcharging the central bank in connection with government-financed projects and keeping the difference.
”Suppose Marcos` cronies ordered equipment from a foreign country and then overpriced the equipment,” one Manila source said. ”Maybe it was worth $5 million and they put $6.5 million on the invoice. That $1.5 million is what they pocket, and no one is able to trace anything specific.”
APNews.com January 31, 1986 article “Fugitive Tycoon: I Was Marcos Front Man” excerpt:
The Journal said Dewey Dee, 42, has testified to the dealings as part of his effort to gain asylum in Canada. The files are sealed, but the Journal quoted unnamed sources familiar with Dee’s testimony.
According to the newspaper, Dee said Marcos was a secret partner in two banks: the Security Bank & Trust Co., the 10th largest commercial bank in the Philippines, and the Redwood Bank in San Francisco.
Dee said Marcos told him to buy the Redwood Bank. He and two partners did buy the bank in 1980; Dee, who was president of the bank, transferred his shares to one of his partners days before he fled the Philippines in 1981.
Excerpt from the Los Angeles Times’ article titled “Investigators Focus on Marcos’ Rich ‘Cronies’ : Probe Agents Who Handled Investments“, dated March 21, 1986:
In California, the Philippine government investigators are focusing on Rolando C. Gapud, a Manila banker who acted as Marcos’ personal financial adviser. A lawyer by training, Gapud ran the Marcos Foundation, a quasi-governmental foundation that absorbed funds from corporations taken over by the Marcos government after martial law was declared in the Philippines in 1972.
Gapud is president of Security Bank and Trust in Manila, and a former director of the Redwood Bank of San Francisco. He resigned from the Redwood Bank because “the publicity and alleged ties to Marcos were presenting a problem for the bank,” said John B. Molinari, another director of the Redwood Bank. Gapud’s whereabouts could not be learned.
In New York, the Philippine government has named several Filipinos as nominees and agents of Imelda Marcos in their lawsuit to take control of three office towers in Manhattan and a 14-acre estate on Long Island, reputedly owned by the Marcoses. The properties were reported to be worth more than $300 million.
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