ALBANY ‒ A secretary to the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, asked the state’s highest court Tuesday to reverse a lower court’s ruling that found her guilty of criminal tax fraud over the secret sale of a Monet painting that had been in the Marcos home.
Vilma Bautista, who served as Marcos’ personal secretary in New York, is appealing a prison term of two to six years on tax fraud, false filing and conspiracy counts imposed in November 2013 by Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Renee White in the appeal, People v. Bautista, 4930/12. In October 2015, the Appellate Division, First Department, vacated the conspiracy conviction (NYLJ Oct. 27, 2015) because White erred in reciting to the jury an opinion issued by the Supreme Court of the Philippines claiming that $658 million in assets held by Marcos belonged to the nation. The court affirmed, however, that Bautista was not deprived of a fair trial because of the prosecutor’s arguments in summation that she was told by the tax attorney to declare her income from the sale. The court also ruled that the interview notes were not Brady material.
