Bogus "son" of Ferdinand Marcos
sentenced by U.S. Court

In sentencing DEL CARMEN, District Judge Lewis A. KAPLAN characterised DEL CARMEN as the leader in a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, who continues to maintain that his name is Edilberto Marcos and, despite a guilty plea, showed no remorse and presents a future danger to society.

According to the evidence at trial, DEL CARMEN claimed, among other things, that he was the first-born son of Ferdinand Marcos, the former President of the Philippines, and that he had acquired a large percentage of his family's fortune, which included billions of dollars in gold. Notwithstanding these claims, DEL CARMEN amassed debts exceeding US$200,000 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hong Kong and US$300,000 to a security firm in New York and repeatedly bounced personal cheques for insufficient funds.

DEL CARMEN claimed that his funds were tied up in gold certificates and in fact gave a bogus gold certificate, purportedly issued by the Union Bank of Switzerland ("UBS"), as collateral for his outstanding debts. This fictitious gold certificate purportedly represented DEL CARMEN's ownership interest in 3,500 metric tons of gold - worth $800 million.

In addition, 700 bogus Federal Reserve Notes in denominations of $100 million and $500 million were seized from the Presidential Suite at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hong Kong where DEL CARMEN had been living. (See previous report in Newsletter Issue1/2002)

In April 2001, an undercover FBI agent, posing as a broker, arrested DEL CARMEN who agreed at an earlier meeting to a deal whereby he, DEL CARMEN, was to receive $1 million upon delivery of a "Safekeeping Receipt" that was allegedly backed by hundreds of millions of dollars of gold. At the time of his arrest a search of his bag revealed a loaded Glock 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol.

DEL CARMEN, 41, resided in Manhattan and Hong Kong prior to his arrest.

Mr. James B. COMEY, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Manhatten, praised the investigative efforts of the New York Field Office of the FBI and the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption.