A property developer who claimed to be a son of Ferdinand Marcos instructed two men to arrange a meeting with the chairman of HSBC to seek a withdrawal of US$90 billion (HK$702 billion) from a 'secret account', a court heard yesterday.
Tiburcio Villamor Tan Marcos, 53, denied one count of using a copy of a false instrument, one of copying a false instrument and one of breaching his conditions of stay. The District Court heard that documents presented to the bank contained many spelling mistakes.
Defending himself, Marcos said the alleged bogus documents were given to him by his father, whom he claimed was the late president of the Philippines.
Mark Sullivan, senior security manager of HSBC, told the court he had spoken to Marcos' representative, Karsten Kenntoff, by telephone on March 27 last year.
'He said he was given power of attorney to have [a gold deposit] released into his custody and he mentioned a large amount of money, tens of millions of US dollars. He also asked me to arrange a meeting with the chairman, David Eldon,' Mr Sullivan said.
After Mr Sullivan told the caller it was not possible for him to see the chairman, the man said he would fax documents in support of his request, the court heard.
Later that day, documents were faxed to Mr Sullivan. Two days later, a man named Georg Lipp came to see Mr Sullivan and produced a set of documents similar to those faxed on March 27. Mr Lipp had also asked to see the company chairman in the hope of arranging a meeting with Marcos, the court heard.