* What is this story that one leading New York publishing house, allegedly told the authors agent in the spring of 1996, "We really wanted to do the book `The Golden Karat', but it's simply too hot to touch? * Who's really calling the shots behind closed doors relating to the U.S.'s secret clandestine operations? Obviously, it not the U.S. Congress. So, where does to money come to even build a large office complex just outside of Washington, D.C., that even the U.S. press printed was unknown by our elected officials? * Who was this mystery man, Severino Sta. Romana a/k/a Jose Antonio Diaz? One newspaper called him the `super spy', and alleged that he was associated with Generals Douglas MacArthur, Edward G. Landsdale, and others at the end of World War II and who set the stage for control of the international and domestic world of politics and finance that continues until to day right here in the United States. * What is the story behind the Japanese spoils of war that has become today known as the Yamashita Treasure? Did this treasure really exist? If so, what happened to it? * What is the truth behind the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, and what is the alleged common thread regarding this act and the assassination of John F. Kennedy? * Why as late as the spring of 1996, was an action instituted in the New York courts, after being in effect for twenty years after the late Sta. Romana/ Diaz's death, to discredit and dislodge the authority of the late Sta. Romana widow, involving a former U.S. Security and Exchange Commissioner, and allegedly other members within the U.S. and governments of Fidel Ramos of the Philippines? THESE ARE ONLY A FEW OF THE TOPICS COVERED IN THE FOLLOWING STORY. THERE IS NO WONDER WHY MANY DON'T WANT THIS BOOK PRINTED OR THIS STORY TOLD. PRESS RELEASE March 4, 1997 WHAT IS GOING ON IN AMERICA? * When the largest single theft ever perpetrated in his history of the U.S. banking industry and the World can go on right under everyone's nose and they can silence the alleged free press with their lies, disclaimers and coverups? * When issues such as campaign contributions, or some murder trial seems to be the only thing the so-called free press has any interest in, even if they are offered evidence to prove what has and is going on? * When the Controller of the Currency and other government agencies had practically stonewalled attorneys enquires regarding this for years, even after being supplied with exact data regarding certain accounts and dates of transfers. * After eight years of investigation and gathering evidence in the form of copies of deposits, and many people's testimony, in the fall of 1995, I sent the White House (Hillary Clinton) a full report on what has taken place, after being told by a former congressional aid that he had discussed this matter personally on three occasions with Mrs. Clinton and she told him she was not only interested, but thought she could help. Why after this, when the White House obviously didn't think or consider after reading my report that I was some wild eyed conspiracy freak, did they write me stating they had referred the matter to the U.S. Justice Department Fraud Section. Shortly after this, the head of the Fraud Section of the U.S. Justice Department wrote me and stated that he had received my report from the White House, together with the enclosures and he had turned the matter over to the F.B.I for investigation. (I'm not sure what he meant by enclosures, because all I had sent was a report.) However, I immediately sat down and wrote him a letter of gratitude, and thinking that finally we might be able to get some justice. In this letter, I also offered to make available all the documents of support that could help substantiate what was said in my report. Why, a very short time after this, and after the same former congressional aid telephoned me and told me that the rumor mill had it that they intended to deep six any investigation into the matter, did I receive another letter from the same party in charge of the fraud section, stating that I must have misunderstood his first letter, because he didn't anticipate and further action would be taken on the matter, I might add, without any agency having the interest or curiosity to even look at the documents we had offered to support the report? All of the above not only did occur, but we have documents and reliable testimony to positively show that it did occur. * In 1996, after I finally sat down and wrote a book on all I had uncovered and included over a hundred pages of documents of support to prove what I had written. Why, after my attorney John E. Hill of San Francisco, and head of the Melvin Belli Foundation, got me a so-called literary agent, who became excited over what was written, and who told Mr. Hill and me that she had sent the manuscript to a leading New York publisher and they were excited as well, did this same young lady call both Mr. Hill and me back within three weeks of this and tell us, that she was in total shock, because her friend in New York told her they really wanted to do the book, but it was simply too hot to handle? Why, do we not have freedom of the press in America any longer? NOTE: The story I wrote and told, was not strictly a story of a huge estate assets literary being taken consisting of hundreds of billions of dollars in precious metal and cash and which was deposited in many banks in the United States, but also in other major banks around the world. It is also the story of who took and who is still trying today to continue to take and steal these assets not already stolen and used. It is also the story of where these assets actually came from, who legally owned them, and perhaps more important, what these stolen assets have been used for. It would seem to me that not only anyone who calls themselves a journalist would be interested in the above, but also any decent red-blooded American. Yet, thus far, despite the evidence and the substantial individuals who know this story to be basically true, not one member of the U.S. Press has bothered to show the least bit of interest in this. Why? If the story, documents, and facts are not true, why would anyone care if the alleged victims story were told or not told? It's not only what has and is still taking place regarding this matter that is wrong, it's totally un-American, at least un-American from what I have been taught for the past sixty odd years to believe our country and our principals are all about. I realize it is indeed a wild story, however, all of the above has and is taking place as I write these words. This estate I write about, is the estate of the late Severino Garcia Sta. Romana, also known as Jose Antonio Diaz. (Pronounced Santa Romana) NOTE: The late Sta. Romana was a citizen of both the Philippines and the United States. I became involved quite by accident in all of this in the late 1980's. After this, I became acquainted with a Shigeo Kokobun a wealthy Japanese, and for years, Mr. Kokobun paid my expenses after asking me to help the late Sta. Romana's widow in her efforts to try and recover a portion at least of what had been stolen from her late husband's estate. In 1992, after Mr. Kokobun's death, Mrs. Sta. Romana and I were legally married. So as not to turn this into a long report, I will only list what I know has happened. (1) After the late Sta. Romana's death, and while my wife was being appointed by a Manila court as the administrator of her late husband's estate, Ferdinand Marcos, in conjunction with certain bank officials in what was then known as First National City Bank in Manila, (now Citibank and Cititrust) opened and took the contents from eight commercial size safety deposits boxes my wife and her late husband maintained in First National City Bank. These boxes contained loads of bearer certificates of precious metal and cash, in addition to their real estate titles, personal jewelry and other items. (2) After being appointed the administrator approximately seven months after the late Sta. Romana's death, when my wife, her attorneys, and a member of the court went to First National City Bank in Manila, and demanded they now be allowed for her to have access to these boxes, (she had tried before this, but was told she would have to wait on the courts) all they found in the first box, which she always had a key to and which also contained the keys to the other boxes, was a current dated newspaper, dated after her husband's death, and during the time she was being appointed by the court. NOTE: First National City Bank at the time, also denied and took her personal deposits in her maiden name of Luz C. Rambano, this amounted to a three-million dollar time deposit, and 180 thousand U.S. dollar savings account. NOTE TWO: After Marcos was taken to Hawaii, he sent her a tape cassette message by a former aid and Manila newscaster by the name of Rita Gody, stating that he then needed her help, and admitting that he was the one who took these items. He also told her on this taped message, that he took them for her and the children's protection. NOTE THREE: We were also told in 1996, that Marcos' sister Baby Babba admitted still holds the original copies of my wife's passbook and this certificate of deposit showing the three-million U.S. dollars. (3) After finding these items missing or denied, and knowing full well that it was only Ferdinand Marcos who, other than the court, who at the time, where in the process of appointing her, that had the authority to order the bank to open these boxes, my wife left the Philippines and went to New York City first, where she knew for a fact her late husband had huge deposits of precious metal and cash. Once there, she was soon appointed by the New York court as well as the administrator of the estate of Severino Sta. Romana -a/k/a- Jose Antonio Diaz. However, when her attorney wrote the banks in New York, where my wife knew and had held actual certificates of deposits and bank books on, not one of the banks named by my wife, bothered to respond to her New York attorney, Eleanor Jackson Piel, inquiries acknowledging even her letters of inquiry. NOTE: When I first met Mr. Kokobun, he told me that he had confirmed what my wife was telling through is mentor and old friend Ryoichi Sasakowa, who not only knew the late Sta. Romana, but was also one of the powerful war criminals which General Douglas MacArthur released shortly after World War II to help form the government in Japan. Mr. Kokobun told me, that Mr. Sasakowa reported to him, that basically everything my wife was saying was true. However, when many of the banks involved and some within the government of the United States learned what Marcos had done . . . . and had taken, this give these banks, and the government the opportunity to also get involved in the theft. NOTE TWO: We hold a lot of evidence today that indicates this is absolutely true. This is also why many don't want the story told, or the documents revealed. (4) After being appointed in New York State, my wife also told her attorney of one transfer she was personally aware of by her late husband of close to 800 million U.S. dollars, that the late Sta. Romana transferred on one afternoon, just prior to Marcos declaring martial law in the Philippines, to his main account in then First National City Bank, New York. However, when Mrs. Piel wrote to the controller of currency and other agencies regarding this and other information she sought, she was totally stonewalled. (5) We now hold evidence showing a part of the late Sta. Romana's accounts in Citibank, and hold other information on Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Melon Bank, Manufactures Hanover, and others. (6) We also today hold evidence which Melvin Belli was able to obtain before his death of many of the late Sta. Romana accounts in the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong. (Computer print-out taken from the Hong Kong authorities after a bank employee was accused and prosecuted for stealing this print-out to sell to some imposters.) (7) We hold evidence, including a copy of a U.S. dollar savings passbook, issued to the late Sta. Romana in March of 1973, clearly showing that on March 16 and 18, 1973, he deposited in these two days close to 500 million U.S. dollars into this U.S. dollar savings account. We also hold other documents showing he also had deposited 1640 metric tone of gold in Sanwa Bank Ltd. Hong Kong. I could go on and on, listing copies of documents we now hold listing banks and amounts that are almost unbelievable. I even sat in Switzerland in the early 1990's with my wife and another American gentleman, while she gave a vice-president of Union Bank of Switzerland her late husband's master gold account number with them. This banker not only admitted that it was a correct account number, but also said he was familiar with the account. He went on to tell her, that he also wouldn't recommend her trying to claim this account while she was in Switzerland, because before the bank, or even the government of Switzerland would agree to allow her to take what this account represented, that they were not beyond having her killed first. He also went on to tell her, that he wouldn't recommend her hiring any Swiss attorneys, because the bank would simply buy them off. (Therefore, when Mike Wallace, on his 60 Minutes T.V. show recently aired his report on the Jewish victims story, what they had to say, was sure no surprise to me.) It took a 600 page book for me to tell this story the way it should be told, but I will bother you to tell you of two recent incidents. In 1995, I was furnished a copy of a letter allegedly written by Ferdinand Marcos to one of his trustees, a Mrs. Santiago, in which he was informing her in 1983, that he was selling some gold bullion which he didn't own, nor the government of the Philippines, deposited in the PoSang Bank Ltd. Hong Kong, and he was depositing this under her name. The party who supplied this letter, connected with the Bank of China, also informed us, that Marcos did sell this gold to the Rothschild bank in France in 1983 for close to 53 billion U.S. dollars. However, before Marcos could effect the transfer of these funds, he was taken from power, and afterwards, these funds were moved to the bank of China. When furnishing these documents, he also furnished a copy of the gold warehouse receipts under which this gold had been deposited. These receipt numbers, matched exactly the gold receipt numbers we had manage to get a copy of the original deposit receipt prior to this, clearly showing the depositor to be S.G. Sta. Romana. In the spring of 1996, I was informed, that Imelda Marcos, her children, and her attorneys, and this Mrs. Santiago were making an attempt to claim these funds from the Chinese Government. (Within days after this, I was offered a personal deal, if I wouldn't try and interfere in what they were doing, whereby they agreed they would pay me personally 2% of the total amount, but absolutely nothing to the estate. I even received a written pay order stating this.) However, prior to this, I had sent copies of these documents to high officials in Beijing. Within weeks, I was informed that Imelda Marcos and her group had been turned down by the Chines Government and the Bank of China. Shortly after this, an action was started in New York State, to dislodge, discredit, and dismiss my wife's authority in New York State, which had been updated in 1992. We had already been informed that before leaving office, and without making any attempt to notify my wife or her attorney or record, Marcos had ordered the original Philippine court who had issued the original letters of administration to dismiss them. NOTE: This act in itself is totally illegal even under their laws. Attorney Eleanor Jackson Piel, who was also named as the co-administrator because of residency requirements in 1992 objected to the 1996 New York actions. She and her husband were told in a private meeting, that the group now in the process of attempting to do this, was headed by a former Security and Exchange Commissioner by the name of James Sergent. The representative, the Piel's met with, went on to tell them, that they intended on taking the remainder of the late Sta. Romana/Diaz assets and use them for good purposes around the world, and even our former President George Bush was aware of this. NOTE: They used as a front person, a Filipino, who claimed to be a daughter of the late Sta. Romana, who called herself, Flordelisa Sta. Romana. Her real name, which I'm now told by my wife that they were able to get documents on, which now clearly proves, is actually Flordelisa Tanceco. I'm also told they have even located her real father who is still alive and living in the Philippines, and I can assure you it's not the late Severino Sta. Romana. The long and the short of this story is, they made a ridiculous offer if Mrs. Piel would stop objecting to what they were trying to do. After we had turned this offer down, they sent a party to the Philippines to find my wife, who was then and still is recuperating from a paralyzing stroke. They told her that they were working with all the banks, and the governments of the United States and Fidel Ramos, and what they were willing to do was, to pay my wife 20% of the entire estate in cash, and the balance would go into a non-profitable trust of which she would be chairman of and have total veto powers over any use of the remainder of these funds. After reading these things to my wife, she agreed. They then told her they needed to run downstairs in their hotel and get copies made. When they returned, they even video taped her placing her thumb prints these documents. (She no longer could actually sign her name because of her stroke. They also went as far as to hire the head of the Philippine Bar Association, who my wife had never met, and he also furnished these thieves with a letter stating that my wife knew exactly what she was signing. HOWEVER: After returning to New York, what they filed with the court, were documents only giving my wife 20 million dollars period, nothing more, and stating that she had never actually been married to the late Sta. Romana. (The offer we had turned down only days before this, and which my wife was aware of, was for a payment of 100 million dollars.) It was obvious what had happened and was going on, especially after I talked with my wife by telephone and asked her why on earth she would sign, say, and agree to what was presented to the New York court. When I informed her of what was presented, she went ballistic, and said that was not what she agreed to at all, and furthermore she would never sign anything stating that her and the late Sta. Romana were never legally married, or that this phoney Flordelisa's mother that was married to the late Sta. Romana. Once we had her send a statement of fact, we immediately asked the New York court to delay any action on this case until we could produce proof disputing what was submitted by Sergent's group. Shortly after this, Sergent's people got this case transferred to another New York court, who did dismiss any authority in New York State that my wife and Mrs. Piel held there. NOTE: In order to demonstrate just how low these people can be, they even went as far as to threaten Mrs. Piel of taking her to the New York Bar Association and charging her with defrauding the court. If there ever was a example of the kettle calling the pop black, this is one. Can anyone in their right mind believe this has been going on right here in American, and not one responsible member of the U.S. press has picked up on the story? The saving grace to all of this is, the late Sta. Romana's will has finally been probated and it clearly states, that his wife Luz, is to be his next in like, and to receive all his live accounts, excluding what is named to be paid to others in this will. This will supersedes any other court orders, real or fraudulently obtained. (NOTE: My wife could not probate this will right after her husband died, because of the high court cost involved due to the amounts stated in this will, and the fact that Ferdinand Marcos, and First National City Bank officials had taken and denied even her personal accounts.) We absolutely know there is a real cover-up going on regarding all of this. We know that many don't want this story told. We know that the governments of Cory Aquino, and now Fidel Ramos have taken the ridiculous official position that the late Sta. Romana/Diaz never even existed and these were just shadow names used by the late Ferdinand Marcos to hide his ill-gotten wealth under. (Despite some of the bearer documents that have been presented clearly showing these deposit dates long before Ferdinand Marcos was anyone of importance. But, how else could they claim any of the late Sta. Romana/Diaz assets otherwise?) We had been told in the early 1990's of an agreement signed in the early 1980's between Marcos, President Ronald Reagan, James Baker on behalf of the U.S. Treasury, John Reed of Citibank, and even Margreat Thatcher for Great Britain, whereby they agreed to take and use the late Sta. Romana/ Diaz's assets for their unauthorized clandestine activities around the world. This was also a much discussed document on Manila television during 1995. We also know that these people use as a justification that the late Sta. Romana/Diaz's wealth came from what is known as the Japanese spoils of war. However, we have evidence which demonstrates that the late Sta. Romana/Diaz was an extremely wealthy man prior to World War II, and had his first gold account when he was only 12 years of age. Besides, even if this claim were true, which it's not, at least not entirely, what spoils of war did the United States of America lose, or the subsequent governments of Ferdinand Marcos, Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, or the government of Japan? Also, if this justification is true, why didn't anyone having a just claim wait for almost 40 years after the war was over and until after Mr. Sta. Romana's died to make this claim? Why after this, did they wait another few years after the late Sta. Romana died and until the spoils of war act had totally expired to alleged his fortune came from this? (A cover-up plain and simple, what else?) This is a very hard story to tell in this short of a form, because there is much, much more to tell. My final questions are, "Is freedom of the press dead in America?" "Is our press so manipulated that the truth can no longer be told and investigated." "Is our press so busy chasing 7-11 bandits that they have no time for the biggest on-going theft story in the history of mankind?" In closing I wish to state, that I'm certainly not a personal publicity seeker. I'm almost sixty-five years old and I didn't even want to do the book for years because of this, unfortunately, I needed money to fight with. Also, unless someone has the courage to tell the truth about this, what will these people do next? IF YOU WISH TO VERIFY ANYTHING I HAVE SAID IN THIS LETTER, OR SEE THE DOCUMENTS YOURSELF, WE WILL BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO OBLIGE. YOU ARE ALSO WELCOME TO CONTACT ATTORNEY JOHN E. HILL FOR CONFIRMATION OF WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN, AND WHO ALSO HAS COPIES OF THE DOCUMENTS WE HOLD. MR. HILL'S TOLL FREE LINE IS - 1 800- 945-0250 Respectfully C.E. "Jim" Brown 10855 Canby Ave. Northridge, Ca. 91326 Phone and Fax 1 (818) 363 8336) Attn: Bill Still 1 -7 including the cover page From: Jim Brown Our mutual friend Jeff Rense asked me to send you the following press release. I would appreciate any help you can provide regarding this. Respectfully C.E. "Jim" Brown my phone and fax number is 818 363 8336 6