The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam: 8. The fall guy

Summary

World of Secrets: The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam – Episode 8: The Fall Guy

Release Date: April 14, 2025

Summary by Suzanne Wilton

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Introduction

In the eighth episode of Season 7, titled "The Fall Guy," BBC's investigative podcast World of Secrets delves deep into the mysterious death of Michael de Guzman, the chief geologist behind the infamous Bre-X gold scam. This episode meticulously unpacks the circumstances surrounding de Guzman's untimely demise, challenging the widely accepted narrative of suicide and exploring the possibility of foul play.

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The Mysterious Death of Michael de Guzman

Official Narrative vs. Emerging Doubts

Michael de Guzman’s death in 1995 was initially deemed a suicide after reports indicated he had jumped from a helicopter amidst the unraveling Bre-X gold scam. However, questions have persisted over the years about the veracity of this account.

• Rudi Vega’s Account (00:36)

  Suzanne Wilton begins by highlighting that the primary account of de Guzman's suicide comes from Rudi Vega, the last person to see him alive. Vega reportedly informed Indonesian police that de Guzman had consumed cough syrup in a bath as a suicide attempt prior to the helicopter flight ([00:36]).

• Contradictions and Suspicion (04:31 - 07:54)

  Suzanne Felderhoff, a relative of de Guzman, provides critical insights that challenge Vega’s story. She reveals that Vega was supposed to accompany de Guzman on the final flight but failed to do so, raising suspicions about the authenticity of his suicide claim. Additionally, journalist Jennifer Wells uncovers inconsistencies in the suicide notes, noting peculiarities such as de Guzman addressing a note to a man he scarcely knew and the presence of grammatical errors ([07:54]).

Notable Quotes:

• John Felderhoff: "He had an addiction to cough syrup. This is what John said, to a coughing syrup. And he sometimes drank a lot of that." ([04:12])
• Jennifer Wells: "There was no genitalia at all and that it was also neatly excavated. Did that body really arrive in such an excavated state when it landed on a slab?" ([08:07])

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Investigating the Autopsy and Identification

Autopsy Anomalies

The condition of de Guzman's body sparked further doubts about the suicide narrative. The initial autopsy in Indonesia concluded multiple traumatic injuries as the cause of death, but the decomposition state did not align with the reported time of death.

• Autopsy Findings (08:07 - 12:09)

  The body exhibited significant mutilation, including the absence of genitalia and evidence of surgical removal, which seemed inconsistent with wild animal activity ([08:07]). John Felderhoff and Jennifer Wells questioned whether the autopsy was thorough and pointed out discrepancies in the identification process, given the body's advanced decomposition.

Notable Quotes:

• John Felderhoff: "There was never any reference to stomach pains or back pains. He was an avid basketball player." ([09:35])
• Jennifer Wells: "The pigs could be so neat in their work, that it was so surgical." ([08:42])

Family and Expert Insights

Lawrence de Guzman, Michael’s brother, and forensic experts like Dr. Benito Molino, known as the "Sherlock Holmes of the Philippines," provided critical analysis challenging the suicide narrative.

• Forensic Investigation (26:00 - 31:12)

  Dr. Molina and his team concluded that the body's state suggested murder rather than suicide, citing selective mutilation that wild animals would not perform. They also questioned the plausibility of de Guzman writing coherent suicide notes under the given circumstances.

Notable Quotes:

• Dr. Benito Molino: "We don't believe that it is de Guzman. He must be killed when he was dead." ([29:20])
• Bernard Lyod: "We noticed grammatically flawed English. So we don't think that that is de Guzman." ([30:53])

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Possible Motives and Theories

Financial and Legal Pressures

De Guzman was at the center of one of the biggest financial frauds in history. His potential whistleblowing could have devastating consequences for the Bre-X empire and its stakeholders.

• Warren Irwin’s Perspective (07:47 - 10:05)

  Businessman Warren Irwin expresses skepticism about the suicide theory, emphasizing de Guzman’s lack of suicidal behavior and pointing out his active social life, which included interactions contradicting the notion of despair ([10:05]).

• Dan Bowman's Insights (14:08 - 16:48)

  Freeport lawyer Dan Bowman suggests that those financially harmed by de Guzman’s actions had motives to eliminate him to protect their interests. He highlights that de Guzman’s death allowed the scam to continue longer than it otherwise would have ([16:27]).

Notable Quotes:

• Dan Bowman: "Bre-X shares would have become worthless if he had told the truth. But instead, it took six weeks to get verified results." ([17:23])
• John Felderhoff: "Mike was Catholic. They don't do that. And then he turned Muslim. Muslims are not supposed to kill themselves." ([16:00])

Suspicious Circumstances Surrounding the Helicopter Flight

The unfamiliarity of the helicopter pilot and the sudden disappearance of de Guzman raise red flags about the accident's genuineness.

• Pilot’s Strange Behavior (20:47 - 22:43)

  Journalist John Macbeth discusses the odd behavior of the pilot and the lack of cooperation from the crew in providing clear accounts of the flight's final moments, further deepening the mystery ([21:21]).

Notable Quotes:

• John Macbeth: "The whole way he described how the events unfolded was almost as if they were totally unaware that he was getting ready to jump." ([21:59])

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Family’s Response and Remaining Questions

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the de Guzman family has largely accepted the official narrative, which has perplexed investigators and journalists alike.

• Family’s Acceptance vs. Journalistic Skepticism (32:46 - 33:32)

  Suzanne Felderhoff explains that while the family has accepted the forensic report, reporters like Jennifer Wells find this acceptance suspicious, suggesting that the family may be discouraging further inquiries ([33:13]).

• Final Observations at the Tomb (35:14 - 41:21)

  Suzanne Wilton visits de Guzman’s tomb with forensic experts and family members. Jeannie de Guzman points out inconsistencies, such as the advanced decomposition state not matching the reported time of death, and the tomb's neglected condition raises further doubts about the identification ([38:16]).

Notable Quotes:

• Jeannie de Guzman: "The body could not be Michael de Guzman." ([39:44])
• Jeannie de Guzman: "I think the body was already dead. Everything is possible. Because the truth can be stranger than fiction." ([41:12])

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Conclusion: An Unresolved Mystery

As the episode concludes, the mystery surrounding Michael de Guzman's death remains unsolved. With compelling evidence pointing towards murder and a plausible motive rooted in financial fraud, questions linger about the true circumstances of his demise. The de Guzman family's reluctance to pursue the investigation further, coupled with the unaccounted-for statements from key individuals like the helicopter pilot, ensures that this enigma remains entrenched in suspicion and speculation.

In the final moments, Suzanne Wilton hints at ongoing efforts to uncover the truth, leaving listeners pondering the unresolved questions and the possibility that the real story behind Michael de Guzman's death may still be hidden.

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Credits

The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam was produced by Kate Bissell, Anna Miles, Mark Rickards, with story consultation by Jack Kibble White. Music and sound design were crafted by Hannis Brown, and additional audio mixing by Joel Cox. Executive editing was overseen by Heather Kane Darling at CBC, with Veronica Simmons and Willow Smith as senior producers. The episode was directed by Arif Noorani of BBC World Service, with Anne Dixie as the senior podcast producer and John Manell as the podcast commissioning editor.

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Key Takeaways:

• Michael de Guzman’s death is shrouded in mystery, with substantial evidence suggesting it may not have been a suicide.
• Inconsistencies in the autopsy reports, suicide notes, and the behavior of associated individuals raise significant doubts.
• Financial motives related to the Bre-X scam provide a plausible reason for foul play.
• The de Guzman family's acceptance of the official narrative remains a point of contention and skepticism among investigators and journalists.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Jennifer Wells: "The pigs could be so neat in their work, that it was so surgical." ([08:42])
• Dan Bowman: "If anybody was involved in de Guzman's death, it would have been somebody who had a direct financial detriment because of his actions." ([16:48])
• Jeannie de Guzman: "I think he spends the rest of his life brooding about this." ([31:39])

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World of Secrets continues to unravel one of the most baffling financial frauds in history, offering listeners an intricate blend of investigative journalism and compelling storytelling.

Transcript

[Suzanne Wilton]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.

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[Suzanne Wilton]

BBC's investigations podcast World of Secrets, here's the eighth episode of our guest season, the $6 billion Gold Scam. From the BBC World Service and CBC, over to Suzanne Wilton. First, a warning. The following episode contains difficult subject matter, including references to suicide, death and descriptions of serious injury. All right, I'm walking down the cobblestones here and let's see them surrounded by mausoleums. Which one? There it is. De Guzman family. There it is. Michael de Guzman's final resting place. Inside is the tomb of Michael de Guzman. It's a square building with white adornments at the top. Looks a little run down. So this is really where the mystery lies. The version of events we know about de Guzman's final hours have been told and retold many times. However, almost all of the details have come from the account and interpretation of just one person, Rudi Vega. Apart from the helicopter pilot and mechanic, Vega was the last person to see de Guzman alive. He watched his helicopter take off. Hours after de Guzman's fall, Rudy Vega was brought in for questioning by the Indonesian police and told them that the night before his flight, De Guzman had downed a bottle of cough syrup in the bath as an attempt at suicide. The narrative that de Guzman had taken his own life jumping from the helicopter started to take hold. However, I've discovered that there are questions surrounding Vega's story. I tried to contact Rudy Vega through the Society of Metallurgy Engineers in the Philippines and discovered he died a few years ago John Felderhoff, De Guzman's boss, told Suzanne Felderhoff, a distant cousin, the fact de Guzman had drunk cough syrup in the bath was not evidence that he was suicidal.

[John Felderhoff]

He had an addiction. This is what John said, to a coughing syrup. And he sometimes drank a lot of that.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Interestingly, Felderhoff also told Suzanne Felderhoff that Rudy Vega was meant to be on De Guzman's flight that morning.

[John Felderhoff]

He was supposed to fly with Rudy Vega. They were supposed to fly together on the helicopter. But then, for some unknown reason, Rudy Vega didn't join him.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Did de Guzman really try to take his own life in the bath that night? And was his fall from the helicopter suicide or something else? And could the body that was found in the jungle shed some light on all of this? I'm Suzanne Wilton from the BBC World Service and CBC. This is the $6 billion gold scam, a story about the lengths people will go to in pursuit of getting rich. This is episode eight, the Fall Guy. The decomposing body found on the jungle floor four days after de Guzman reportedly jumped was taken to the hospital in Balikpapin for an autopsy. However, the pathologist who carried it out was not asked to make a positive identification, only to look at the cause of death. Identifying the body was going to be difficult. Wild pigs were thought to have eaten parts of the body. The face was gone. One of de Guzman's Indonesian wives, Lilis, was shown autopsy photos by the Indonesian police. And although the face was not recognizable, there was a distinctive lump on the shoulder that led her to confirm it was de Guzman. After the first autopsy in Indonesia, the body was sealed in a coffin and flown to Manila. The Philippines National Bureau of Investigations was unimpressed with Indonesia's one page autopsy report, and so they carried out a more extensive examination. The National Bureau of Investigation's report on cadaver number N97 591 concluded that it was the body of a man of about 40 years of age which was severely damaged. It noted that the cause of death was from multiple traumatic injuries. But the pathologist had trouble identifying the corpse because the body was too decomposed to match fingerprints. De Guzman's brother, Lawrence de Guzman, was brought in to visually identify the body, and like Lillis, he confirmed it was de Guzman. He said he recognized his brother's feet. After identification, the autopsy recorded his death as allegedly from a fall. But these findings have been challenged.

[Jennifer Wells]

I think we know from sort of the tearing and the evulsions on the skin that it was not just from the fall.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Journalist Jennifer Wells managed to obtain a copy of the autopsy report, and in it she discovered some deeply bizarre and shocking details.

[Jennifer Wells]

When I looked at the autopsy photographs and the body was so neatly sutured, of course, I would imagine that the wild boars, etc. Would have gone for organ meat. That makes sense to me. But what is often referenced is the fact that there was no genitalia at all and that it was also neatly excavated. Did that body really arrive in such an excavated state when it landed on a slab? The question for me, though, always was, it's surprising that the pigs could be so neat in their work, that it was so surgical.

[Suzanne Wilton]

I've tried to contact the pathologist who conducted the second autopsy and the National Bureau of Investigations in Manila to discuss the findings, but have received no reply. The condition of de Guzman's body left difficult questions to answer. On the face of it, when suicide notes were discovered in the helicopter, it reinforced the narrative that de Guzman had taken his own life. However, businessman Warren Irwin, who we heard from in previous episodes, has never been sold on the suicide story. I don't believe the suicide letter for two seconds. There's no way he was suicidal. Trust me on this one. And it turns out that the closer you look at these notes, the more puzzling they become. Suzanne Felderhoff.

[John Felderhoff]

Again, there were all these suicide notes that were found, and one of them said, like, I cannot live with these pains anymore. Stomach pain, back pain. And so John was just. He wrote. He read these messages later and he was completely flabbergasted because he said, it doesn't make any sense. He said, in all these 10 years that I've known Mike, there was never any reference to stomach pains or back pains. He was an avid basketball player.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Jennifer Wells, who reported on Breech's for Maclean's magazine, agrees.

[Jennifer Wells]

This is a man who drank up a storm at the Prospectors and Developers shindig in March of 1997 when he was hanging out at the strip club for your Eyes Only and, you know, asking yet another stripper to marry him. Because why not?

[Suzanne Wilton]

One of the notes de Guzman left was addressed to Bernard Lyode, a bre x finance manager, who, strangely, de Guzman didn't actually know.

[Bernard Lyod]

I didn't expect to get that because why he actually addressed that note to me. He had actually what we call secretary. She's the one that looking after my personal affair. He authorized me in case his inability or disability or debt. I authorized you to pay his bills and blah, blah, blah.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Bernard Lyod reads from the suicide note.

[Bernard Lyod]

Don't bury me, Create me in Manila. And then at the bottom he said, voluntarily authorized Mike de Guzman.

[Suzanne Wilton]

According to Suzanne Felderhoff, John Felderhoff questioned whether his geologist, de Guzman had even written the suicide notes.

[John Felderhoff]

The police had told him that the note was written in the helicopter. And John thought that would have been quite difficult because there's helicopter flight vibrations that would have interfered penning his note. And also that Mike's reading glasses were found in a black briefcase with his carry on luggage. And he could never have written any notes without these glasses. He never for a second thought that de Guzman committed suicide.

[Suzanne Wilton]

So we have notes that police believe DeGuzman wrote when in flight, but seemed to have been written with a steady hand. We have de Guzman saying he is going to take his own life due to stomach and back pains. But these ailments didn't seem to get in the way of him enjoying life. Then there is a note written to a man de Guzman hardly knew. And finally we have de Guzman misspelling the name of one of his wives. I obtained a copy of the suicide note addressed to Bernard Liode, which reads, please accompany my body to Manila documents for my wife Teresa. Please hand carry with my passport. But in the note there is an H after the T. And that's not how de Guzman's wife actually spelled her name. The more you look at the suicide notes, the stranger they become. And there are other questions too. Jeannie de Guzman had been in a relationship with de Guzman for eight years and married two years before having a son and a daughter. Mike was afraid to drive a car. He can't drive. I was the one who drove. Mike was a timid guy, so how could he jump out of a helicopter? Freeport lawyer Dan Bowman has also struggled to square the accepted story.

[Dan Bowman]

De Guzman was one of a kind. He was a brilliant person. He struck me as someone who was very, very smart and very, very cunning. And he came up with a very creative idea.

[Suzanne Wilton]

In fact, the only person who originally described de Guzman as suicidal is the man who we were told was meant to take the final helicopter flight with him, but didn't. Rudi Vega. An odd choice if he believed de Guzman had already tried to take his own life. The evening before the flight. If de Guzman didn't take his own life, could it have been an accident?

[Dan Bowman]

No, I don't think so. You know, looking at the type of helicopter, I believe it was called an Alouette. I've been in one of those before and it's hard to get out. So you really have to work at jumping out of the helicopter. You don't just sort of fall out of the helicopter. He didn't look suicidal to me. You know, he looked like he was, you know, cunning. Like I said, that's the best word I could use to describe him.

[Suzanne Wilton]

So what does that leave? Shortly before his death, De Guzman confided that he thought he was being watched. Mike told me, ma, I was being.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Followed all the way to Canada.

[Suzanne Wilton]

He said, you better not go with me.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

I feel like I keep seeing this person.

[Suzanne Wilton]

When I was on the plane, I saw this person again.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

It was for almost two months that.

[Suzanne Wilton]

We were being followed. For John Felderhoff, his thoughts on what had happened to de Guzman were very clear. Suzanne Felderhoff he thought that Mike DeGusman was murdered.

[John Felderhoff]

He said if he wanted to commit suicide, which he didn't believe, he said Filipinos don't do that. And de Guzman was also Catholic. They don't do that. And then he turned Muslim. Muslims are not supposed to kill themselves, so religion was against it. I think he spent the rest of his life brooding about this.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And here's Freeport lawyer Dan Bowman again.

[Dan Bowman]

The BRE X deal caused a lot of losses, including Indonesian interests who had invested money and also political capital in making the transaction happen. So there would have been a lot of people who were very angry about what had happened, and it was clearly intentional. I mean, they mixed the gold in and that was proved.

[Suzanne Wilton]

So there would have been some motive for someone to murder him.

[Dan Bowman]

I think if anybody was involved in de Guzman's death, it would have been somebody who had a direct financial detriment because of his actions. Obviously, you can't accuse anybody of murder, but I think that he certainly would have been brought to justice had he not fallen out of the helicopter, because he had violated many, many laws in Indonesia and it was a fraud on the shareholders and the other stakeholders, for sure.

[Suzanne Wilton]

If De Guzman had made it to his meeting with Dave Potter and Freeport, then perhaps he would have told them about the scam, that there was no gold at Busang. If he'd done that, then it would have put a stop to everything and BRE X shares would have become worthless. Bernard Liot, Brex's finance officer, remembers that near the end, De Guzman did try to cash in on his remaining shares, but Felderhoff refused.

[Bernard Lyod]

He didn't get approval because at the time he still had about 200,000 shares unexercised.

[Suzanne Wilton]

In his salary package, De Guzman had been allocated 200,000 bre shares, but was only allowed to sell them with the agreement from Felderhoff.

[Bernard Lyod]

When he tried to cash that. That before he jumped.

[Suzanne Wilton]

How long? How much before?

[Bernard Lyod]

Just before he jumped.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Boarding the helicopter, De Guzman must have known his father. On arrival in Busang, he knew Dave Potter was very close to discovering the scam. And soon the world would know. Moments before takeoff, De Guzman got on the radio and instructed geologist Manny Puspos to hand over a piece of rock for Freeport to test for gold. Manny Puspos was Cesar Puspos brother and the only geologist left in the Busang site. Following the process conference in Canada, De Guzman said, give them what they want. It doesn't matter anymore. Were these the last words from a man who knew he was defeated? A man who was about to come clean? Or a man who was about to end it all? What we do know is that de Guzman's death actually bought more time for those who had Breeck's shares. Although the stock price did dip when the news of his apparent suicide was released, they soon rallied. In fact, it was six weeks later when the Strathcona report, commissioned by BRE X to check Freeport's own drill results and findings, that it was officially confirmed. There was no Gould and Breech's shares became worthless. If de Guzman hadn't died, the truth would have come out on that day. But instead, it took six weeks to get verified results. Six weeks where a lot of people kept cashing in. But if he was murdered, why was his body so horrifically mutilated beyond recognition, yet so easily found in a vast, dense jungle?

[John Macbeth]

I have serious doubts that de Guzman made the jump. It just doesn't sound right to me. And the pilot? An Air Force pilot, He was new to the job. In fact, as de Guzman was walking across the tarmac at Samarinda Airport, he happened to mention to his wife Jeannie that the pilot was new and so was the crew chief. And then the phone went dead and he climbed on the helicopter and disappeared.

[Suzanne Wilton]

The fact the helicopter pilot was not the usual guy meant suspicion initially fell on him. To the best of our knowledge, the pilot has rarely spoken about what happened after giving his initial statement. He has always strongly denied any involvement and maintains he didn't see what happened. Journalist John Macbeth.

[John Macbeth]

There's a lot of things about this that just don't match up, do they?

[Suzanne Wilton]

You'd think if the family wanted answers, they would push for those.

[John Macbeth]

Yeah, they'll never get the Air Force guy to talk. Actually, I think somebody did talk to him, but he just stuck to the story which was suddenly the door opened, slid open, and the ghostman was gone. And up to then he'd been sitting there writing letters or something. And it was all very strange to me. The whole way he described how the events unfolded was almost as if they were totally unaware that he was getting ready to jump. And you'd think, you know, you gotta open the door.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Two separate sources have confirmed Rudi Vega died several years ago. And the pilot and mechanic are not talking, at least not to us. If it's not possible to get any more information from those who were there, perhaps the evidence can tell us something. Which brings us back to de Guzman's body and the autopsy reports. If you look at those again with an open mind about the cause of death, what could you find?

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[Dan Bowman]

I saw the photo of the corpse.

[Suzanne Wilton]

A few days after it was found. Freeport lawyer Dan Bowman was shown close up photos of the body and they were gruesome.

[Dan Bowman]

The face had been eaten and the intestines were out. But I only saw the photos for, you know, a minute or two. It looked like a mush.

[Suzanne Wilton]

There have been so many myths and rumors and difficult to tell fact from fiction.

[Dan Bowman]

Steve Hughes is the guy who worked. He worked for BRE X. He says that's de Guzman because I saw the tattoo. He said he had a butterfly tattoo or something on his left arm. I did not see that in the pictures.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Shortly after the autopsy reports came out, the de Guzman family pushed to have de Guzman's death investigated. Highly embarrassed by the whole scam. The Indonesian authorities refused, so the family took matters into their own hands. I traveled to Manila to meet Dr. Benito, otherwise known as Doc Ben. Doc Ben was one of three members of an investigative team hired by the Deguzman family to look at all the evidence.

[Bernard Lyod]

Hi, Suzanne.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Hello.

[Bernard Lyod]

How do you do?

[Suzanne Wilton]

How do you do?

[Bernard Lyod]

I am Benito Molino, a doctor of medicine, practicing forensic.

[Suzanne Wilton]

The investigative team was led by the late, highly respected forensic anthropologist, Professor Jerome Balin. It also included his protege, Dr. Richard Taduran, a forensic anthropologist.

[Bernard Lyod]

Well, Professor Jerome Valen is the expert in the Philippines regarding identification of people using their skeletal remains, the possible causes of their death.

[Suzanne Wilton]

He's known as a bit of the Sherlock Holmes of the Philippines.

[Bernard Lyod]

Yes, yeah, that's what they call him, the Sherlock Holmes of the Philippines.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Doc Ben described the condition of de Guzman's body to warn you it is graphic, but it could be relevant to the cause of death.

[Bernard Lyod]

He was found four days later with all his internal scans. The pedis of the scrotum gun, broken bones.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And what were the family's suspicions at the time?

[Bernard Lyod]

Well, at the time, the suspicion of the families that she might have been killed. First of all, do you know any wild animals that ate only the internals? They should be choosy animals that they will only eat the internals and the scrotum and the penis. So for us, that's something impossible.

[Suzanne Wilton]

The investigating team also saw bruises on de Guzman's neck.

[Bernard Lyod]

If I can remember right, there's still some skin reactions around the neck. With that, we dismissed the suicide story. He must be killed when he was dead. He was thrown out of the chamber in the jungle, making it appear that he committed suicide.

[Suzanne Wilton]

So the conclusion was that he was murdered.

[Bernard Lyod]

That's what we believe. That is our conclusion that most probably he was killed by strangulation.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Why?

[Bernard Lyod]

Because of the.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Why do you think he was killed?

[Bernard Lyod]

In crimes, in big crimes, usually there will always be fall guys. So we don't believe that a real mastermind will be reidentified.

[Suzanne Wilton]

There was not enough bruising to suggest he'd been tortured. And the mutilation of the genitalia. Doc Ben's team weren't convinced that this was due to wild pigs eating de Guzman's body parts, and instead came to the conclusion that his body may have been desecrated after death, a possible punishment for the scam. In the report presented to the de Guzman family, they also analyzed the suicide notes and why they might have seemed to contain so many contradictions.

[Bernard Lyod]

You know, if you're a brilliant guy and they will ask you to write a suicide note, you will not do it the right way because you will be doing it in protest. So the best way to do it in protest is, you know, don't do it right so that people will not really believe that you committed suicide.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Doc Ben had a second theory that the note could have been forged.

[Bernard Lyod]

We noticed grammatically not good English.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Grammatical errors.

[Bernard Lyod]

Yeah, grammatically flawed English. So we don't think that that is degosmann. He'd been there for years talking to English people and, you know, he should be good in English.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And Doc Ben also questioned the motive given in the notes that de Guzman was struggling with underlying health conditions.

[Bernard Lyod]

You know, hepatitis is not really deadly disease, so why commit suicide? Because of the hepatitis. So where he died, who killed him? I think some people could provide the answer. Where is Rod Vega? Where is he now?

[Suzanne Wilton]

Rudy Vega?

[Bernard Lyod]

Rodi Vega? Roddy Vega? Yeah. Where is he now? Maybe he knows more. Maybe he could. He could be Ubal Why?

[Suzanne Wilton]

Why? Do you remember Rudy Vega? What do you remember about him? Why is he special?

[Bernard Lyod]

He was his partner in the BRE X mining exploration. Maybe he knows more.

[Suzanne Wilton]

The rcmp, the Canadian Royal Canadian Mounted Police came to the Philippines to investigate. At some point, did they interview?

[Bernard Lyod]

No, no, they didn't come to us.

[Suzanne Wilton]

What was the reaction of the family when you presented the report?

[Bernard Lyod]

The reaction of the family? We sent the report. They accepted it.

[Suzanne Wilton]

If their brother was murdered though, why didn't they push for further investigation?

[Bernard Lyod]

I can answer that for them. Maybe it happened in Indonesia. They are in the Philippines. Maybe for them she's in Filipino. So you usually just leave it. Just ask the Lord that justice will be very happy.

[Suzanne Wilton]

In 2007, JoJo de Guzman, Michael de Guzman's brother, agreed to speak with me for a newspaper report I was writing about BRE X. The family accepted Doc Ben's report. To them, it didn't really matter how he died. They just wanted to remember de Guzman as a father and a son. This made journalist Jennifer Wells suspicious.

[Jennifer Wells]

See, the skeptical journalist in me finds that very interesting.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Why?

[Jennifer Wells]

To say, we just want you to accept that Michael is dead. Because we accept that he's dead. The manner of his death doesn't matter to us. I think that goes against human nature.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Because you'd want to know how your loved one died.

[Jennifer Wells]

Absolutely.

[Suzanne Wilton]

So does that give you pause to think? Mmm, maybe they just want it to go away so people stop asking questions.

[Jennifer Wells]

If I were an investigative journalist, I would use that as a reason to keep digging.

[Suzanne Wilton]

We tried to contact de Guzman's sister in the U.S. diana and her brother Jojo in the Philippines several times for comment, but they never replied. But we did manage to speak with his other brother, Lawrence. However, after consulting with Diana, Jojo and his other siblings, he decided not to speak with me. It's in the Holy Cross Cemetery and we have to pass the Lawn of Tranquility and the lawn of serenity. 2. The tomb is in the estate of peace. 3. Does that help? I traveled back to de Guzman's tomb in Quezon City, Manila. The cemetery is the size of a small village with roads crisscrossing well manicured lawns. On one side of the cemetery are graves, but on the other side are what look like small boxy houses where the wealthy been able to build family tombs with ornate gates and steps leading up to glass frontages. This time I was with Dr. Taduran, who worked alongside Doc Ben. He thinks the autopsies may have been missing something.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Something's not adding up. Based on previous descriptions of the body. Because if. If someone is dead for like four days, it shouldn't be in an advanced state of decomposition. But based on the description of the Indonesian doctor, it was in an advanced state of decomposition.

[Suzanne Wilton]

How do we even know the body is male? If the genitals were removed, let alone if it was Michael de Guzman. De Guzman's wife, Lilis had identified him, but given the condition of the body, it would have been hard to do so from photos. Maybe she was mistaken. De Guzman's brother, Lawrence de Guzman, also gave a positive identification. He said he recognized the feat. I decided to contact the family one last time while in Manila to see if they'd meet with me. Lawrence told me his family didn't want to speak because, as he put it, they'd like to let sleeping dogs lie. So we're walking along a stone path here, and beside us are these buildings, like small houses, some of them. So this is it.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Oh, okay.

[Suzanne Wilton]

We have here a stone structure, it looks like.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

So there's only one individual. There's only.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Yeah, one tomb.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

One tomb, yeah. Okay. It looks like it's abandoned.

[Suzanne Wilton]

What gives you that sense?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Well, it's dirty. It's. It. Nobody has, like, taken care of it for a long time.

[Suzanne Wilton]

So four steps up to a set of glass, an entirely glass front. And on the inside there are other benches. Again, presumably that's where the family would sit when they come to visit. There's a shelf in the back which has some flowers and what. What appears to be a container of some sort and a drink, a juice box. Otherwise it's really bereft of much else inside. Is that an urn? It looks like it could be.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

It looks like an urn.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And a granite tomb.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

I think there's still a lot of questions about Michael DeGusman's death, basically.

[Suzanne Wilton]

What are some of those contradictions?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Well, given the idea that degusmann jumped from a helicopter, one would expect that some of his bones, especially the limbs, would be fractured or. But according to the Indonesian doctor, actually, he didn't mention anything about limbs. I can remember he mentioned something about the skull that was intact. So that seemed irregular to me because if you jump from a helicopter, then most probably your skull would have a trauma in it or fractured.

[Suzanne Wilton]

What are some of the other things, things that you find suspicious?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Another unusual thing is that according to Indonesian police, that Michael DeGusman has died for four days. But the decomposition description of the doctor seemed like he died around two weeks.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Oh, that long?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Yeah, yeah, that. That seemed unusual. To me.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And what could that mean?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

The composition doesn't lie. So I think the body was already dead. The individuals are dead for one to two weeks.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And if Michael de Guzman was seen the day before, that means what?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

The body could not be Michael DeGuzman.

[Suzanne Wilton]

If the body in the tomb isn't Michael de Guzman. Did de Guzman fake his own death? Was it part of an exit strategy? Is this what the family means by letting sleeping dogs lie? This is really where the mystery lies. Right here. We're sitting in front of a tomb. The mystery could be solved. It's right in there, inside that tomb.

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Or I would recommend that the body would be exhumed and further analyzed to be sure about it.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Would that finally put a rest to this mystery?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

I think so.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And why is that important, do you think? Think?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

I think it needs to be settled for everybody's closure, for everybody's sanity. I think it needs to be settled once and for all.

[Suzanne Wilton]

Do you think it's possible that he could be living it up somewhere on the millions he made off pre ex?

[Jeannie de Guzman]

Yeah, Everything is possible. Because the truth can be stranger than fiction.

[Suzanne Wilton]

The funeral of Michael de Guzman at the Holy Cross cemetery should have been the end of the intrigue putting a bizarre life to rest. Instead, many people, like the forensic anthropologists, believe de Guzman is still alive and living off his bre x fortune. They may be right. I found several people who say they can prove de Guzman escaped. And someone who's been contacted very recently by a person going by the name of Michael de Guzman. In the final episode of the Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam, I meet a former CIA agent assigned to put surveillance on Michael de Guzman.

[Bernard Lyod]

My government work. I've seen coups and evacuations, but I've never seen something as intriguing as this.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And learn about suspicious cargo brought aboard de Guzman's helicopter. What do you think this cargo was?

[Bernard Lyod]

I think it was a body.

[Suzanne Wilton]

And things get even wilder as Michael de Guzman's wife makes a startling revelation.

[John Macbeth]

We were sitting there at lunch at the Dharmawangsa Hotel, I remember. And suddenly in the middle of the lunch, she dropped this bombshell on us.

[Suzanne Wilton]

The $6 billion gold scam is produced by BBC Scotland Productions for the BBC World Service and CBC. I'm Suzanne Wilton. Our lead producer is Kate Bissell. Producers Anna Miles, Mark Rickards story consultant Jack Kibble White music and sound design by Hannis Brown. Additional sound design and audio mix by Joel Cox. Executive editor Heather Kane Darling at cbc, Veronica Simmons and Willow Smith are senior producers. Chris Oak is executive producer. Cecil Fernandez is executive producer, and Arif Noorani is the director at the BBC World Service. Anne Dixie is senior podcast producer, and John Manell is the podcast commissioning editor. Thanks for listening. Foreign.

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