Swiss Order Freeze on Marcos Accounts

Amid growing signs that Ferdinand E. Marcos is being deserted by some of his former cronies, the Swiss government said Tuesday that it is ordering banks to freeze any accounts that may be held there by the ousted Philippine president, his family “and the like.”

The unusual order, issued by the seven-member federal council that runs the Swiss executive branch, did not confirm that any assets of Marcos or his suspected cronies are in Swiss financial institutions.

But the Philippine commission investigating Marcos’ hidden assets claims to have located at least one such account holding $800 million, and it has charged that Marcos has used Swiss banks to hoard much of the $5 billion to $10 billion he is accused of stealing from the Philippines.

Also, the 2,300 pages of documents seized from the former president when he fled to Hawaii last month contain evidence of multimillion-dollar accounts at several Swiss banks, although the owners of the accounts are not identified in the documents.

The Swiss order, issued Monday, directs the nation’s six major banks and a national banking association to freeze any accounts of the Marcos family and all “persons, companies and the like associated with them.” The freeze is to remain in effect indefinitely.

Withdrawal Effort Reported

The order follows reports that Marcos and his allies sought in recent days to remove money from secret Swiss accounts.

The Swiss action was revealed amid indications that some of Marcos’ closest advisers and financial associates are now cooperating with U.S. and Philippine investigations of the former president’s 20-year reign.

In Washington, Marcos’ reported New York real-estate managers, cited for contempt of Congress earlier this month after they refused to testify on Capitol Hill, huddled for four hours Tuesday in a closed meeting with Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.).

Solarz, chairman of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee investigating the Marcos regime, later called the meeting with Ralph and Joseph Bernstein “very useful” and said that the two “answered all the questions which we asked them.” Those questions, he indicated, ranged beyond the Bernsteins’ own dealings with Marcos to other Marcos assets in the United States.

The Bernsteins have publicly denied any dealings with Marcos, but Philippine documents appear to indicate that Joseph Bernstein was trustee for Marcos’ holdings in the Crown Building, a prestigious Manhattan office building. Investigators contend that the Bernsteins were involved in Marcos’ purchase of at least five New York and Long Island properties valued at $350 million.

‘Tip of the Iceberg’

“I think it’s very clear that the real-estate empire controlled by the Marcoses is only the tip of the iceberg,” Solarz said after the meeting. “I’m not sure even the Bernstein brothers know what the tip of the iceberg is.”

Solarz also testified Tuesday before a federal grand jury in Washington considering whether to indict the Bernsteins for contempt of Congress, which carries a fine of up to $10,000 and a jail term of up to a year.

It also was reported Tuesday that one of Marcos’ top advisers, industrialist Jose Y. Campos, has told Philippine corruption investigators that he organized 40 “shell companies” in the Netherlands Antilles and elsewhere to shelter Marcos’ stolen assets.

The Wall Street Journal said Campos alleged in a sworn statement that the dummy companies, first formed in 1965, controlled Texas real estate, more than a dozen Philippine businesses, two Panama companies and two Hong Kong concerns.

Campos was reported to have disclosed his work for Marcos because he felt “betrayed” by the former president. He was said to have formed the companies for Marcos to stave off the takeover of his own pharmaceuticals corporation, which later came to dominate the drug industry in the Philippines.

Marcos Moves From Base

Meanwhile, Marcos and his wife, Imelda, their search for a new refuge in Panama apparently stalled, moved early Tuesday from quarters at Honolulu’s Hickam Air Force Base to a luxurious $1.5-million rented beach house on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

State Department officials said the Marcoses moved into the private home Monday night, leaving a two-bedroom officer’s bungalow at Hickam where the couple had spent the four weeks since they fled the Philippines.

Three vans of luggage guarded by Secret Service agents pulled up to the four-bedroom home Tuesday afternoon.

The officials said the Marcoses will live in the house mainly by themselves, while most of the aides and servants who fled with them will find homes elsewhere or return to the Philippines. Only a few Philippine security officials remained at the Hickam bungalow.

“The bottom line is that by Thursday, we would expect that all remaining members will probably have vacated Hickam,” State Department spokesman Charles Redman said.

U.S. officials continue to aid Marcos in his search for a haven outside the United States, but officials said Tuesday that no move to another location appears imminent. They declined to say how long Marcos’ Secret Service protection--which originally was to extend only 30 days after his Feb. 25 departure date from Manila--will be continued.