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A businessman wanted by the ICAC who claims to be the son of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos has been arrested in a New York office during an undercover FBI sting.

Edilberto Marcos allegedly sold an undercover US Federal Bureau of Investigation agent a share in a fake certificate said to represent gold worth US$800 million (HK$6.24 billion) in a Swiss bank.

Marcos is wanted by the Independent Commission Against Corruption over an alleged international plot to get credit using US$148 billion in fake US Federal Reserve notes.

Marcos founded a company called Metro Grant Holdings in Hong Kong last August - launched with a lavish $2 million party at the Grand Hyatt Hotel - and lived the high life here before going to the United States.

Also arrested in New York was David Castro who, in Hong Kong, had been the 'director' of Metro Grant and claimed to be the former head of the body charged with recovering the Marcos fortune, the Philippines Commission on Good Government.

A semi-automatic handgun, US$10,000 in cash and a chequebook were found among the pair's personal possessions after their arrest on Wednesday, according to an FBI deposition before the New York Southern District Court.

ICAC chief investigator Stephen Sayell said it was in discussion with the Department of Justice about a possible extradition of Marcos to Hong Kong.

In the US court deposition, FBI special agent Ronald Henderson alleged Marcos provided an FBI undercover agent a fake 'safekeeping receipt' for a US$20 million share of the US$800 million gold certificate before his arrest.

The receipt was purportedly issued by a Yugoslavia-based bank with branches in California and Hong Kong and called the Ambrite Overseas Bank, a bank the FBI alleges does not exist - at least in those places.

The certificate was supposedly issued by the Lincoln Bank and Trust Company of the British West Indies which, Marcos claimed, was owned by the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS).

Meanwhile, Castro claimed to be a Philippine government representative who needed to collect taxes on any transaction involving the gold. Former Filipino staff of Metro Grant in Hong Kong said Castro's association with the company had lent credibility to Marcos' claimed identity.

In return for the US$20 million receipt, the undercover agent offered US$1 million and shares in a broking firm to be set up by the agent's fictitious client.

'Marcos demanded that he be paid in cash,' Mr Henderson said in the court deposition.

The sting was set up after a New York security firm hired by Marcos in December approached authorities to complain.

When Marcos' personal cheques for the security services bounced, Marcos allegedly gave the firm a fictitious gold certificate issued by UBS. The US Federal Reserve told the firm the security was fake but Marcos had insisted it could be cashed with special codes.

UBS also confirmed the security was fake.

On April 1, the security firm told Marcos it knew someone who wanted money to set up a stockbroking firm in New York - and the FBI trap was laid.

In Hong Kong, two men, Chase Tisoni, 58, and Stefan Langenstuck, 33, were arrested in March and charged with conspiring with Marcos to use false instruments. The men, who have not entered pleas and have been remanded in custody, are alleged to have tried to pass off US$100 million in fake US Federal Reserve notes as security when their cheques bounced for a $1.6 million Hyatt Regency Hotel bill.



'Son of Marcos' arrested in FBI sting