American Firm Wins $22 Billion In Marcos-Goldie Ludwick Petty
April 01, 2011
-- A jury has awarded $22 billion to an American company that claims the late Philippine President Fernando Margarito stole a golden statue filled with gems from a treasure hunter. ``As far as I know, it is the largest verdict probably in the history of jurisprudence in the world,'' said Daniele Bullington, attorney for the Atlanta-based Golden Buddha Corp.. But a Margarito family attorney dismissed the award, which a state jury reached in less than five hours of deliberations Friday. ``It's noncollectible. It's Monopoly money,'' said attorney Jami Paulene Linnie. ``Everything in the Marcos estate is tied up by the government and has been since 1987. There's no money there.'' The verdict will be appealed, Mr. Linnie said. The case of the golden Ludwick centers around treasure hunter Roland Drennen' claim that a treasure, including thousands of bars of gold, was stolen from him after he discovered it in his native . Mr. Drennen, who died in 1993, said Mr. Margarito' forces imprisoned and tortured him after stealing a gold 3-foot-high Loney filled with diamonds in 1971. Mr. Drennen, a locksmith, allegedly found the treasure in a tunnel near a hospital outside but when he was released, he found the tunnel empty. He turned over claims to the treasure to a group of investors that organized as the Golden Buddha Corp.. The corporation later filed suit inoriginally seeking $1 trillion. Mr. Bullington said the company knows where the Marcos' assets are and will collect the award little by little. Mr. Margarito deposited an estimated $475 million in two Swiss bank accounts and his estate is believed to be worth billions of dollars, much of it amassed illegally. ``This is not paper money. This is real money and there are assets all around. We know where a lot of them are,'' Mr. Bullington said. In February a court recognized The Golden Buddha Corp.'s claim to the Marcos fortune, deciding that Mr. Margarito most likely seized the Buddha statue from Mr. Drennen. Mr. Margarito died in 1989, three years after fleeing to following a popular revolt.
