The maneuvering in the US Senate to draw a blade across the war reparations agreement was unnecessary for some of the better-connected German industrialists. Alfried Krupp, widely regarded as a “super-Nazi” for financing Hitler and Himmler (and because he utilised slave labour and plundered occupied territories) was personally “pardoned” from a pending war crimes trial by John McCloy – High Commissioner in Germany. Not only that, but McCloy, a former director of the Ford Foundation, rescinded a property confiscation order that would have stripped the Baron of his enormous holdings, thereby bringing to a close his status as one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.

In the post- war years, one of the more colourful Nazi characters employed by Krupp was Otto (“Scarface”) Skorzeny – dubbed Hitler’s “favourite commando.” In addition to being the head of the post- war SS escape network, Die Spinne (The Spider), Skorzeny was also an operative for the CIA. Krupp favoured the burly SS officer especially because of his valiant achievements in transferring Krupp’s wealth -- and that of other industrialists, plus gold and other loot plundered by the Nazis -- to banks in neutral nations shortly before the collapse of the Third Reich. Skorzeny had other powerful friends also. Allen Dulles is said to have personally involved himself in the 1953 decision by Reinhard Gehlen nominating Skorzeny as the chief military adviser to the Egyptian regime of General Mohammed Naguib.

Also intriguing is the close connection between Baron Krupp and Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, who escaped post-war Germany via the Vatican ratlines to Argentina after languishing for a few years in Italy.

Ladislas Farago in his book Aftermath – Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich, reveals that Dr. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach approached Bormann in August 1942 intent on passing his vast fortune – which was increasing under the Third Reich – via a “fideicommission” to a single heir, thus keeping the Krupp empire intact. The alternative was to see the amassed fortune divided many ways, which would have inevitably led to the disintegration of the house of Krupp. 

The problem was that the existing law interfered with his desire. He told Bormann that he wished the firm to pass on to his eldest son, Alfried, regarded as a “devout Nazi and SS man.” [i]  In exchange for Hitler’s agreeing to modify the law to permit Krupp’s request, Bormann extracted an agreement whereby Krupp assigned a portion of his vast assets, in secret, to the Nazi Party under Bormann’s control. Consequently, a new law was passed on 12 November 1943 permitting a “Lex Krupp.” Pleased with the agreement, Hitler lavished profitable contracts on him, making Krupphaus the “most prosperous cog in the industrial war-machine.” 

One of the assets assigned was a massive ranch in Argentina that was later used by Bormann as a favoured bolt-hole. Ever a realist, Bormann understood that the defeat at Stalingrad spelled the end of the Third Reich. Consequently, he began shipping plunder regularly, by U-boat, to Argentina throughout 1942 and 1944 under a plan known as “Aktion Fuerland” – Operation Land of Fire, so named because of the archipelago, Tierre del Fuego, Argentina’s southernmost “Land of Fire.” These transfers, totalling around 1,800 shipments, were to be used to “help the rebuilding of the Nazi empire,” according to Rudolph Freude, one of Bormann’s trustees and a close confidant of Eva Duarte – later to become Eva Peron. 

Evita Peron was, in fact, part of the Freude syndicate handling the vast stash of Nazi loot that was regularly being shipped to Argentina for deposit in four banks chosen by Freude. These banks were the Banco Aleman, the Banco Aleman Transatlantico, the Banco Germanico and the Banco Tornquist. In each case the gold, silver, gemstones and other treasure were deposited to accounts in the same name – that of Senorita Eva Duarte. Four individuals implicitly trusted by Bormann had joint control over all the deposits – a procedure designed to ensure that personal greed was checked before it could take root. 

The principal reason for Bormann’s sojourn in Italy, forcing his delay in travelling to Argentina to safety, was that Juan Domingo Peron, under the guidance of greedy Evita, wished to acquire some of Bormann’s hoard in exchange for allowing Bormann entry and providing him state security once he had arrived. Practical as ever, Bormann agreed to hand over a portion of the assets he controlled. He eventually arrived in Buenos Aires in the Spring of 1948 to begin his new life. 

It is, therefore, of considerable interest to learn that in the summer of 1947 – when negotiations between Bormann and Juan Peron were in full flow – Evita chose to make a “good-will” trip to Europe, travelling to Lisbon, Madrid, Geneva, Paris, Zurich, Lucerne and Rome, where, according to Ladislas Farago, negotiations with Bormann were finally steeled. [ii]  She also visited a less well known Spanish city – Avila -- that lies to the west of Madrid.

Why she visited Avila is not known – at least by me. But there is an intriguing possibility worth mentioning. The Appendices at the end of this Dossier reveal a vast fortune in gold, gemstones and currency left as an inheritance by Sr. Don Franco Miguel de Avila and Sra. Dona Trinidad Asis de Villarba de Avila of Spain. The heirs of this vast estate were Francorito MC de Avila and Lolita Trinidad V. de Avila of Manila, Philippines.

Of interest, Dona de Avila shared the same middle name “Trinidad” as Imelda Marcos’s mother – Remedios Trinidad Romualdez, known to intimates as “Medy.” Whether this is happenstance or indicates that the heirs of this fortune are related to Imelda Marcos, I do not know. I do know that both Marcos's preferred to use close confidantes and family as “cut-outs” whenever possible. 

The so-called “Melmer” hoard of gold and other blood money gathered by the SS at the death camps included 550,000 ounces of gold. [iii]  This is a quite specific amount of gold that converted totals just over 17 tonnes. It is, therefore, of more than passing interest to note that I have in my possession an ownership certificate dated 2 June 1980 in the name of Dra. Rosario Romualdez Ramo. Romualdez is, of course, the family name of Imelda Marcos. The certificate is too faded to reproduce, but it bears the account number 881-161426 together with the transaction code number RRR/51981-26. You will, by now, have gathered that it represents ownership of 17 tonnes of gold. 

The Peron connection to Bormann gold provides yet another twist. In early 1973 – the year Peron returned to power in Argentina -- 400 tonnes of gold belonging to Peron was put on sale in the black market. Worth £700 million, it almost equalled the entirety of the Bank of England’s official gold reserves. In any event, the sale of Peron’s 400 tonnes of gold was code-named “Bormann 1345,” creating a suspicion that it might have originated as one of Bormann’s 1,800 odd “shipments” of loot to Argentina (a figure mentioned by both Tom Bower and Ladislas Farago). In any event, the Spanish government was tutor for this bullion and was required to sanction the sale that was being offered by a Chilean businessman living in Madrid. The transfer agent was, according to author, Robert Hutchison, Professor Vincenzo de Nardo – described as an “Inspector-General with the Italian Finance Ministry,” who stated that his involvement was private but conceded that the transactions was of a “political nature.” [iv]

Peron, it will be recalled, was an intimate of Licio Gelli, the grandmaster of the notorious P2 Masonic Lodge that has been described as a right-wing parallel government in waiting [see description of P2 Masonic Lodge below]. Gelli answered to the Vatican Chamberlain, Umberto Ortolani – a member of the inner council of the Knights of Malta.  [v]  Juan Peron, who visited Rome in 1973, was accompanied on his return to Argentina by Licio Gelli, who was appointed honorary Argentine Consul in Florence a few months later. Less than a year after Peron’s successful re-election, Escriva de Balanguer, the legendary founder of Opus Dei, visited Argentina, said to be home to one of Opus Dei’s most successful operations in South America. 

Throughout his long sojourn in South America, Bormann generally felt safe from being identified and, indeed, safe from capture. His life revolved around administering the ever growing mass of Nazi funds that long ago had been artfully invested. However, in November 1972, London’s Daily Express newspaper broke a series of articles showing that Bormann had escaped retribution and was living in South America. Bormann was, in fact, living in some comfort in a huge hacienda in Chile when the story broke, causing a worldwide sensation. 

News of the Daily Express’s Bormann “expose” quickly reached Captain Hans von Gerstein in Argentina. Gerstein was a close confidant of Bormann and more than the fear that his master might become a target of Israeli revenge or kidnapping, Gerstein’s concern was for the vast financial empire that Bormann still personally controlled and which was spread throughout 750 corporations located around the world.

With Bormann’s consent, a conference was held Santiago, Chile beginning 22 December 1972 and lasting until Christmas Eve. The meeting was carefully monitored and kept under 24- hour human and electronic surveillance by Chile’s secret police special bureau. Finally, after two days of intense meetings, control over Bormann’s assets moved into the hands of Captain von Gerstein. According to author Paul Manning in his book Martin Bormann – Nazi in Exile, Bormann’s assets are now administered by a “leadership group of twenty” younger men who oversee investment strategy in the form a board of directors, chaired by Bormann.

Among the institutions that have benefited from Bormann’s gold-hoarding efforts is Deutsche Bank, which, just prior to the collapse of the Third Reich, entrusted the Reichsleiter with its secret reserves to preserve them intact. [vi]  Manning notes that other major conglomerates that have reason to thank Bormann for his care of Nazi wealth include Bayer AG, BASF and Hoechst. The explosion of growth and profitability of these and numerous other corporations resulted from the huge flow of investment funds that “poured in from the interlocking companies established in safe haven countries by Martin Bormann and Hermann Schmitz.” [vii]

One additional interesting fact was Bormann’s return from Chile – where he had fled following the downfall of Juan Peron in 1955 -- back to Buenos Aires in 1966 and 1967. His visits were timed to coincide with meetings of a shadowy group committed to building a reinvigorated worldwide movement of Third World nations patterned on the Third Reich. This was to be the successor to Hitler’s New Order with a focus on a coalition of anti-communist right-wing forces. One of the aims of the secretive group was “the seizure of total power in Argentina” together with a plan leading to the “ideological conquest of Latin America.” These aims were to be pressed forward in “collaboration” with the “chiefs of national Socialism in Germany and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.” [viii]

This “hierarchy” within the Roman Catholic Church would almost certainly have reached as high as Monsignor Giovanni Montini, who was the Vatican’s Undersecretary of State throughout the war years and shortly after. Montini, of course, would become Pope Paul VI. In their book The Secret War against the Jews, authors John Loftus and Mark Aarons say that some evidence exists that Montini became a “source” for the CIA after World War II. [ix]  Likewise, the Sicilian born banker, Michele Sindona, who knew Montini and who worked closely with Roberto Calvi, the disgraced Milanese banker who brought down Italy’s largest private bank, Banco Ambrosiano.

It was Montini who headed the Vatican-run “Ratlines” engaged in smuggling wanted war criminals, members of the SS and other Nazis on the run to safety in Latin America, the Middle East and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the shadowy anti-communist group that wished to induct Bormann into its circle as a notional figurehead to aid it with the task of “building a reinvigorated world-wide movement of Third World nations patterned on the Third Reich,” was the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) that was chaired by US CIA operative, John Singlaub. He entered our story earlier as a leading member of the Philippine gold-hunting Nippon Star group.

It is hardly surprising that another member of Singlaub’s WACL was Kodama Yoshio, who also earlier featured in this story. Another, of course, was Ferdinand Marcos, who attended WACL meetings throughout his 20-year reign as dictator of the plunder-rich Philippines. It is interesting to note that America’s tax authority, the IRS, granted the US arm of WACL tax-exempt status following serious pressure from Ronald Reagan’s White House. Singlaub and others would later leave their mark on public history due to their involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair that was given birth by Lt. Col. Oliver North’s so-called “Enterprise.”

Interestingly, Kodama was one of those who, in 1954, founded the Asian Peoples Anti-Communist League.  Kodama, along with his Yakuza compatriot and war-criminal cellmate, Ryoichi Sasakawa, ruled Japan with an iron fist artfully concealed in the gloved hand of political puppets. Sasakawa, in particular, boasted of a close, personal friendship with Ferdinand Marcos "long before he became president."  Author Sterling Seagrave believes their friendship arose during "the Quirino presidency at the end of the 1940's when Marcos and other Quirino lieutenants were busy trying to discover" where Japanese plunder had been buried in the Philippines.  Sasakawa was also deeply involved with the CIA, especially during the CIA sponsored anti-Sukarno campaign of the of the 1950's when he was in charge of supplying "materials to the anti-Sukarno camp." [x]

Other founding members of the APACL included the former Chinese warlord and patron of the feared Shanghai underworld Green Gang, Chiang Kai Shek and Korea's Park Chung Hee -- whose claim to fame was to establish the Korean Central Intelligence Agency modelled on America's CIA.  Another founding member was the Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church [Moonies] -- a CIA tool if ever there was one. Meanwhile, one-time war criminal and Yakuza boss Ryoichi Sasakawa (together with Kodama) virtually ruled Japan from behind the scenes.

If there was one thing that connected the individual members of this odd group, it was their shared fascist beliefs and backgrounds that resulted in another common denominator -- all became immensely wealthy.