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TOM EASTON CSB#109218

JONATHAN H. LEVY CSB# 158032

Law Office of Thomas Dewey Easton

1335 Pebble Beach Drive

Crescent City, CA 95531

Tel: (707) 464-4513

Fax:(707) 465-5389

Attorneys for Plaintiffs and the Class

Of Counsel:

K. LEE BOYD CSB #189496

Pepperdine University Law School

24255 Pacific Coast Highway

Malibu CA 90263

Tel: (310) 317-7684

MILOSH MILENKOVICH, ESQ.

5851 Pearl Road, Suite 302

Parma Heights OH 44130

Tel: (440)840-2770

JOY ROTHENBERG, ESQ.
9343 Lansford Drive

Cincinnati OH 45242

SAN FRANCISCO

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT: NATURE OF ACTION

1. This is a civil action arising under customary international law and the laws of the United States of America on behalf of named Plaintiffs and a class of all Serbs, Jews, and former Soviet Union citizens (and their heirs and beneficiaries), who suffered physical, monetary and/or property losses including slave labor, due to the systematic and brutal extermination of Jews, Serbs, and Romani by the Nazi puppet Regime, The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) led by Pavelic's Ustasha Regime, and as a result of the occupation of the former Soviet Union by Croatian military forces in concert with their German occupation forces. This is an action against the Vatican Bank, Franciscan Order and Unknown Catholic Religious Orders, Croatian Liberation Movement (HOP), Swiss National Bank (SNB) and as yet unnamed recipients of Nazi and Ustasha Loot, Swiss, Austrian, Argentine, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and German banking institutions and California and other United States correspondent banks for their participation in and benefit from the Ustasha Regime's acts of cruelty and violence.

2. Plaintiffs and their heirs and beneficiaries seek accounting, restitution, disgorgement, and to recover damages arising out of the participation of Defendants, Vatican Bank or Istituto Per Le Opere Di Religione (hereinafter referred to as IOR), the Franciscan Order (OFM) and Unknown Catholic Religious Orders, Croatian Liberation Movement (HOP), Swiss National Bank (SNB), unknown recipients of Nazi and Ustasha loot, and other banking institutions and correspondent banks and religious orders and organizations in a common scheme and course of conduct: (a) to profit from, both directly and indirectly, the inhumane and genocidal system instituted by the Nazi-directed Ustasha Regime in Croatia and territories subject to Croatian civil or military occupation upon those peoples that it viewed, not as human beings, but as subhuman according to Nazi and Ustasha ideology; (b) to obtain, accept, conceal, convert and profit from assets looted by the Ustasha Regime and deposited in, or liquidated through, the IOR, SNB, unnamed Doe Defendant Banks, and Franciscan Order during the ascendancy of the Ustasha Regime and following the demise of the Regime at the behest of the former Ustasha and Nazi leaders through the offices of the Franciscan Order; and (c) to retain and convert assets deposited in their institutions by the Croatian Liberation Movement, Ustasha and/or the Franciscan Order and Unknown Catholic Religious Orders.

3. Defendants committed, conspired to commit, and aided and abetted others who committed crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Defendants assisted the Ustasha Regime and its leaders as well as prominent Nazis to successfully evade justice for their genocidal crimes by concealing and making available the considerable assets of the Ustasha Treasury⁽¹⁾.

4. Evidence of the extent of the Defendants' participation in wrongdoing has only recently come to light as a result of the disclosure and declassification of archived documents in the United States, Great Britain, Germany and other countries, as well as from the reports of several commissions and/or task forces created in the United States, Germany and elsewhere and in particular the Supplemental Report of June 2, 1998 by the United States State Department: U.S. and Allied Efforts To Recover and Restore Gold and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden by Germany During World War II, "The Fate of the Wartime Ustasha Treasury," released under the auspices of Under Secretary of State, Stuart E. Eizenstat.

5. By the conclusion of the Second World War, all Defendants were advised by the international community that the knowing use and benefit from the Ustasha Treasury, and the knowing looting and plunder of assets and benefits therefrom, were violations of international law and various codes of criminal conduct. All Defendants nevertheless improperly retained and concealed illicit profits and withheld them from their rightful owners. Defendants have unlawfully and unfairly profited from these practices for more than half a century, thereby illegally and improperly strengthening their own economic position in California, the United States, and throughout the world.

6. This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to:

(a) 28 U.S.C. § 1350 in that certain Plaintiffs are United States and foreign citizens who assert claims for torts in violation of the law of nations. Upon information and belief, the Franciscans and Unknown Catholic Religious Orders, with knowledge and support of Vatican representatives in Croatia and Croatian representatives in the Vatican Bank, were aware of, participated in and facilitated (1) torture; (2) plunder; (3) displacement; (4) slave and forced labor; (5) conversion, screening and transfer of assets; (6) facilitation of escape from justice of the torturers and the assets plundered, using assets plundered to facilitate escape, secreting and benefitting from such plunder; and (7) conspiracy to publicly and privately support and encourage the above-mentioned acts. Defendant SNB was involved with conversion, screening and transfer of assets Further, Defendants and certain Plaintiffs may be found in this District and Plaintiffs are unable to pursue remedies in the place where the transaction occurred in that no adequate or available remedies exist;

(b) 28 U.S.C. § 1331 in that Plaintiffs make claims against Defendants under federal common law as it incorporates customary international law and international treaties in that Defendants knowingly used and benefitted from plunder taken from Plaintiffs by the Ustasha Regime, in violation of international treaties;

(c) 28 U.S.C. §1332 in that the amount in controversy as to each claim asserted and sought to be asserted herein by certain Plaintiffs exceeds the sum of $75,000, exclusive of interest and costs and certain Plaintiffs herein are U.S. residents and thus diverse in state citizenship from Defendants, citizens of foreign states;

(d) Plaintiffs are uncertain if 28 U.S.C. 1605 applies as to the Vatican Bank, in that (1) at the time of the filing of this suit, the Vatican State, and perhaps institutions and facilities under its control, was a sovereign; (2) the actions Plaintiffs complain of involve an activity for which the law provides an exception to sovereign immunity under 1605(a)(3); (3) although the acts complained of occurred prior to 1952 when the exceptions to sovereign immunity were adopted, because the United States did not recognize the Vatican State as a sovereign prior to 1952, the Vatican State could not have expected immunity for its acts prior to that time; therefore, exercising jurisdiction would not offend due process principles or the Vatican State's expectation of immunity; (4) the profits which Defendants have incurred as a result of their plunder of Plaintiffs' property have impacted Defendants' commercial transactions in the United States; (5) the status of the Vatican Bank as an instrumentality of a foreign state is unclear in that leading authorities indicate the Pope in his personal capacity and not the Vatican State (Holy See) control the Vatican Bank;

(e) California Code of Civil Procedure § 354.6 extends the statute of limitation for Second World War slave and forced labor victims for any action commenced on or before December 31, 2010; and,

(f) Alien Tort Claims Act 28 U.S.C. § 1350 as to non US citizen plaintiffs only;

(g) 28 U.S.C. § 1367 for any claims not otherwise covered by the aforementioned jurisdictional bases.

(h) 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(1) and /or § 1605(a)(3) of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act as to defendant SNB.

7. Venue is proper in this Court because all Defendants are doing business and may be found in this District within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b) and/or, as aliens, may be sued in any district pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(d).

INTRADISTRICT ASSIGNMENT

8. Venue is proper in this Court pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure § 395 and Civil Code § 1780(c) because some of the acts and transactions complained of herein occurred within this county, some of the Class members are residents of this District and, upon information and belief, Defendant IOR does business, owns property in this District and functions as a merchant offshore bank and does business with correspondent banks in California including Bank of America and Banca Nazionale de Lavoro. Defendant Franciscans are a worldwide religious order. The Franciscans maintain a regional headquarters in Oakland, California with responsibility for operations in the states of California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Missouri, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico and missions in El Salvador, Brazil, Thailand, Israel, Guatemala, Northern Mexico, Italy, the Philippines, Peru, and Africa. Defendant Croatian Liberation Movement has also been active in California. Defendant SNB as the central bank of Switzerland conducts business globally including the United States and California

9. Plaintiff Emil Alperin was born June 3, 1922. Prior to the German invasion of Ukraine, he resided in Odessa, Ukraine at 63 Sverdlova Street, Apt. 11. Germans and allied Fascists believed to be Croatians looted and destroyed all the household belongings and personal property of Alperin. Plaintiff was held prisoner at Buchenwald Concentration Camp from March 1944 until April 1945 where he was prisoner #34646. Emil Alperin is Jewish and currently resides in Kharkov, Ukraine.

10. Plaintiff Jewgenija Romanova, formerly Petruchina, was born December 7, 1927. Before the German occupation, she resided in Nikolayev, Ukraine at 13 Kolodeznaya Street. Germans and allied Fascists, believed to be Croatians, looted and destroyed all the household belongings and personal property of Romanova. Romanova was held prisoner at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp from March 1944 until April 1945 where she was prisoner #33543. Romanova currently resides in Kharkov, Ukraine.

11. Plaintiff Maria Dankewitsch was born January 29, 1922. Before the German occupation, she resided in Sevastopol, Ukraine in the Fudolf District. Germans and allied Fascists believed to be Croatians looted and destroyed all the household belongings and personal property of Dankewitsch. Dankewitsch was held prisoner at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp from February 1943 until May 1945 where she was prisoner #17406. Dankewitsch currently resides in Kiev, Ukraine.

12. Plaintiff Vladimir Morgunov was born September 2, 1925. Before the German occupation, he resided in Mariupol, Ukraine in the 75 Kotovskoogo Street. Germans and allied Fascists believed to be Croatians looted and destroyed all the household belongings and personal property of Morgunov. Morgunov was held prisoner at Buchenwald Concentration Camp from March 1943 until April 1945 where he was prisoner #13341. Morgunov currently resides in Kiev, Ukraine.

13. Plaintiff Vladimir Brodich was born March 1, 1931 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As a young Serb Orthodox boy, Plaintiff resided in the town of Kostajnica, Krajina. In April 1941 a German officer came to his home, because both of his parents were fluent in German (his father having lived in Austria and his mother having received her high school education in Salzburg, Austria). The officer showed them photographs of Ustasha atrocities, warning them that they should leave immediately for Belgrade beyond the reach of the Ustasha. The German officer prepared documents for the escape of the whole family. Unfortunately, the town mayor persuaded his father to stay. In August 1941 the Ustasha took away his father Nickola, his 24 year old brother Dragomir, and his older sister to a detention center. Plaintiff's father and brother were tortured, then murdered. Before their death, his father asked to embrace his son, and thus they were shot together. Five years later, their bodies were exhumed and identified because still embracing one another. At the detention center Plaintiff's sister was gang raped by Ustasha; she only survived by the efforts of a Chetnik partisan (who was later captured, tortured, and thrown alive into an oven to die by the Ustasha), and died in 1997 without being able to bear children. Plaintiff and his mother survived by escaping to Belgrade. Plaintiff's family lost their two homes, and because his murdered brother was so wealthy, it took the Ustasha more than two years to auction all of his brother's property. Plaintiff came to the United States in 1949, is the only surviving heir to the family property, and currently resides in Arizona.

14. Plaintiff William Dorich was born July 17, 1939 in West Virginia. Plaintiff's father, Samuel Todorovic Sr., came to the United States at the end of WWI as a "displaced person," along with plaintiff's brother George and their parents from the village of Vojnic in the Krajina region, having been "ethnically cleansed" by Croatians who sided with Germany in WWI. Upon becoming a naturalized citizen Samuel Todorovic Sr., changed the family name to Dorich just prior to the birth of his two sons, Samuel Jr., and William. During WWII, the Ustasha burned to death 45Serb victims in the Orthodox Serb church in the village of Vojnic, of which 17 victims were relatives of the Dorich family. Plaintiff has spent his lifetime speaking out against the Ustasha and is the author of numerous books on the Balkans. The only member of plaintiff's family still alive is his 83 year-old Serb-American mother, Mary Savage Dorich. Plaintiff resides in California.

15. Plaintiff Igor Najfeld was born June 28, 1944 in Yugoslavia, on the day that his mother, a Yugoslavian Jewish physician, and his father, a Polish Jewish physician, escaped from three years of forced labor by the Ustasha Regime beginning in 1941. Plaintiff's parents had been living in Zagreb on April 10, 1941 when the Nazi's invaded Yugoslavia, but by October 4, 1941 the Ustasha Regime had imprisoned plaintiff's parents and later sent as forced laborers to Bosnia. Plaintiff's grandparents, who were sent to Jasenovac and murdered there, owned a department store in Slavonski Brod that was looted and taken over by the Ustasha. Fifty-six of plaintiff's mother's relatives were murdered by the Ustasha, many of whom perished in the Jasenovac Concentration Camp system. Most of plaintiff's relatives were prosperous and all lost property to the Ustasha looting. Plaintiff grew up in Yugoslavia and eventually emigrated to the United States, where he now resides in Vermont.

16. Plaintiff Lizabeth Lalich's paternal family lost 48 family members in May 1945, when all the women and children from the Lalich family were murdered and placed in a mass grave. They were killed by Croatian Ustasha after they descended from hiding in the mountains above their village in Korencia, Lika (Krajina) Yugoslavia. The war had just been declared "over" and they thought it was safe to return home. In Plaintiff's maternal family (Knezevic), Jovan Knezevic, brother of Plaintiff's grandfather Stojan Knezevic, was taken from his home and tortured and murdered by the Croatian Ustasha in May 1944, in Mutilich, Lika (Krajina), Yugoslavia at the age of 30 years. Plaintiff's teenage cousin Dusanka Kovacevic (niece of Plaintiff's grandfather Stojan Knezevic) was taken from her home in Dalmatia to Croatian capital Zagreb, along with other kidnapped Serbs, and hung to death on Serb Eastern Orthodox Christmas, January 7, 1942. Plaintiff resides in Illinois.

17. Plaintiff Mladen Djuricich was born March 20, 1929 in Strmen, Township of Crkveni Bok, County of Kostajnica, Krajina, on the Sava River. During the first week of May 1941 Plaintiff's father discovered a naked body floating down the river from Sisak and pulled it out. After removing the board nailed to its head, he recognized it as a Jewish liquor dealer from Sisak and thereafter buried his body in the Strmen Orthodox cemetery. Two days later Plaintiff's father was arrested by Ustasha for the crime of burying a Jew and sent off to Auschwitz; however, on the way in Vienna the Chief of Police examined him on his knowledge of English (Plaintiff's father had lived in the United States and was still a US citizen) and German, and after finding them satisfactory, he sent him on to Germany to be an interpreter in a prisoner of war camp for downed Allied airmen. He survived, was reunited with his family after the war, and died in 1958. At the age of 13 Plaintiff was in August 1942 one of some 3,000 Serb children forcibly converted to Catholicism by the Ustasha, where he was so viciously kicked by Franciscan priests for accidently tripping into one, that his friend watching reported to his mother that he was dead. A little later, on October 13, 1942 a large number of armed Ustasha surrounded the three villages of the Township to round up everyone to take them to Jasenovac extermination camp, but Plaintiff and his older brother Djuka escaped and went to join the partisans. However, Plaintiff was too young and had to return to Strmen where he found everything burned and was told that more than a 100 people had been killed on the spot, but his aunt Stoja Maslovara was one of two women that the Ustasha beheaded. Her daughter Soka, his cousin, was so horrified at finding her mother beheaded that she nearly committed suicide, but buried her mother and went and joined the partisans. Plaintiff thereafter hid in the woods until March 1944 when he was found by an elderly couple from Strmen who took him to a Croatian friend of his family, Marija Balenovich in Vedro Polje near Sunja, where he was soon reunited with his mother. She had come into contact with Volksdeutscher German soldier Franz Merlin and thus by his assistance Plaintiff and his mother and 32 other Serb children were taken to safety by railroad cattle car to Belgrade on March 23, 1944. In 1946 Plaintiff was told that Franz Merlin had returned to bring more Serb children to safety but was caught and murdered by the Ustasha. Plaintiff's father's entire estate of a large house, two barns, four horses, eight cows, many pigs and turkeys and chickens was destroyed and looted by the Ustasha. Plaintiff currently resides in Indiana.

18. Plaintiff Robert Predrag Gakovich was ten years old in June 1941 when the Ustasha came to the town of Plaski in Krajina where he lived with his parents and two brothers. His father, a 40 year old Serb Orthodox priest was taken along with all of the town's prominent Serbs to Velebit Mountain, tortured, and in July 1941 thrown into the Jadovno pit. Plaintiff's mother fled with her children for Belgrade in July 1941, leaving behind all their possessions. Plaintiff thereafter emigrated to the United States in 1952 where he graduated from Berkeley and retired in 1994. Plaintiff resides in Wisconsin.

19. Plaintiff Nevenka Vukasovic Malinowski was born in the village of Mala Pralovica. In 1942 Plaintiff's father Panteluja, brother Nikola, aunt Vida and uncle Gjulo Kovacevic, cousin Milan Zigic and his 18 year old son Nikola, and most of her friends and neighbors were taken by the Ustasha, some sent to forced labor in Germany but those that were left were sent to Jasenovac camp system. A surviving witness told Plaintiff that her relatives were tortured, then made to dig their own graves, chained together, and every other victim shot (to save bullets) causing them all to fall into the graves, dying and alive together. Some in her village who resisted were murdered on the spot. Plaintiff's uncle Samojlo Vukasovic resisted and was beheaded in his own yard; an eyewitness told Plaintiff that his body stood upright for a few unbelievable seconds with blood spouting from his neck, while his wife ran out from her hiding place screaming in horror. The Ustasha then murdered her by smashing her head with their rifle butts until her brains oozed out. Another eyewitness told Plaintiff that her cousin Sava Otkovic resisted also and as punishment the Ustasha tied him up in his yard while they drove his widowed mother and wife and two small children back into the home to which they then set fire. The Ustasha only murdered him, after forcing him to listen until the dying screams of his family ended, by cutting off his extremities and finally decapitating him so that his body looked like the carcass of a slaughtered animal. Plaintiff resides in Florida.

20. Plaintiff Eli Rotem was born June 11, 1931 in Zagreb. On April 3, 1941, just prior to the invasion by Germany attacking Yugoslavia, he and his sister were taken by his mother to Belgrade, and later Sarajevo, at the direction of his father, an officer serving in the Yugoslav army and wanted them to escape being taken to Germany as Jews. Plaintiff's father survived the war years in a prisoner of war camp in Germany, while Plaintiff and mother and sister managed to get to Split, in the Italian zone. Under orders of the German SS units, the Italians chained Plaintiff and the other men and transported them and his family by boat to Italy where they were interned in Asolo. Eventually, after the downfall of Mussolini, Plaintiff and his family escaped to avoid being sent to German extermination camps, and remained in hiding near Bellaria for awhile before fleeing to the small mountain village of Pugliano. There local farmers helped them survive, with the exception of Plaintiff's grandfather who suffered a stroke but could not risk looking for a doctor because his being circumcised would have given away his Jewish identity. Thus Plaintiff's grandfather died from his legs being amputated from gangrene shortly after being freed by Allied forces. Plaintiff thereafter spent some five months in refugee camps before emigrating to Palestine in April 1945. After serving in the Israeli armed forces, Plaintiff emigrated to the United States in 1952 and became a citizen. Plaintiff currently resides in Florida.

21. Plaintiff Milorad Skoric was born in Pakrac, Yugoslavia, on December 12, 1948, but his father was born on January 8, 1924 in Loncarica, a small village between Virovitica and Grubisno Polje. Plaintiff's father was grazing pigs in the nearby forest in 1942 at the age of 18 when he saw smoke rising from Loncarica. By the time Plaintiff's father returned home the whole village was burned down and every person, including all his family, taken away, apparently by the Ustasha. In 1945 it was learned that his father and mother and two of his six sisters had perished in the Jasenovac concentration camp system, and that some younger sisters had been sent as forced laborers to Germany. Plaintiff's father died at age 74 in 1999 and only one aunt survives in Yugoslavia. Plaintiff emigrated to the United States in 1991, became a citizen, and currently resides in California.

22. Plaintiff Veljko Miljus was born in 1950 in the same village as his ancestors in Tusilovacski Cerovac, Yugoslavia. There Plaintiff's grandfather Mica Miljus and uncle Nikola Miljus were arrested by Ustasha in 1942 and sent to Jasenovac concentration camp where they perished. Plaintiff's grandfather and uncle were peasants and not guilty of any crime except being Orthodox Serbs, but a Croatian neighbor's accusations against them was enough to send them to certain death at Jasenovac. Plaintiff's remaining family was forced to flee from the Ustasha several times during World War II. All the family property and valuables was looted or destroyed by the Ustasha and their Croatian supporters. Plaintiff immigrated to the United States in 1965 and now resides in Illinois.

23. Plaintiff Fred Zlatko Harris was born in Zagreb on April 15, 1911 as Zlatko Hirschler and his now deceased wife Milica Neumann was born on August 17, 1918. As a Croatian Jew Plaintiff and his relatives lost all their property to Croatian and Ustasha looting, including their homes and apartments and furnishings. Plaintiff was the production manager for his in-law's apparel factory, the second largest in Yugoslavia at the time, and the factory and its contents including 50 advanced industrial Singer sewing machines was confiscated. Plaintiff's in-laws also owned many pieces of investment real estate, a new car, and Plaintiff a motorcycle, all of which were confiscated. Persecution of Jews began about two months after the German invasion. Plaintiff's brother Hinko ended up in Jasenovac where he survived three and a half years, only to be murdered in the last hour prior to the Ustasha abandoning the camp to the Partisans. By July 1941 Plaintiff and his in-laws managed to reach Split, under Italian occupation, but not before having to deliver to the Zagreb police headquarters most of their gold, jewelry, and other valuables under pain of immediate execution. Plaintiff and his wife were able to survive the next three years in Italy, but his wife's father, mother, and sister did not and were buried in Italy. In August 1944 Plaintiff and his wife were fortunate to be selected to be part of the 1,000 Jews allowed into the United States, and went by ship from Naples to a military camp in Oswego, New York. In May 1946, after Plaintiff and his wife had become free and legal immigrants in New York City, their only child Peter was born. Besides his brother Hinko, Plaintiff became a citizen and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

24. Plaintiff Milja Conger was born January 1,1925 in Slunj, Krajina. After undergoing surgery in the hospital in Ogulin in April 1941 Plaintiff was taken by Ustasha to Karlovac as a forced laborer in a formerly Jewish factory, and then on January 28, 1943 sent to Germany for forced labor for the remainder of the war. Plaintiff and one cousin were the only members of her family to survive the Ustasha purges of Orthodox Serbs in Croatia. Plaintiff eventually emigrated to the United States and became a citizen. Plaintiff currently resides in California.

25. Plaintiff Allen Dolfi Herskovich, born April 20, 1918, was an important sports figure in prewar Yugoslavia, representing his county in Vienna in 1937, in London in 1938, and Cairo in 1939 in table tennis. With the invasion by Hitler in 1941 the team of five players dispersed to five different countries, plaintiff reaching Italy after five months with what remained of his family. In October 1943 plaintiff was liberated by the Allies along with two brothers, but plaintiff lost his father and sister with her two small children in Auschwitz, while a brother was killed that year by the Ustasha. Plaintiff's father had been a very successful businessman in textile manufacturing, but all his property was looted by Ustasha and Germans. This property was valued by the Tito government in 1948 in excess of $1,500,000 in prewar dollars. No compensation has ever been received by plaintiff. Plaintiff and his wife Dorothy and two sons presently reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

26. Plaintiff Bogdan Kljaic's father Luka Kljaic lost his first wife and two children to the Ustasha from 1941 to 1943. Plaintiff's mother lost her first husband, Stojan Mitic, to the Ustasha, the same day that 700 Serbs were murdered in the Orthodox Church in Glina in 1941. Plaintiff's half-sister Ljubica Kljaic, born 1927 in Strmen, was sent to Jasenovac in June 1941 at the age of 14, where she was tortured and killed. Plaintiff's older half-brother Bogdan Kljaic, born 1924 in Strmen, was killed by Ustasha in 1942 on a mountain top called Lebrenica near Kostajnica. Plaintiff's parents afterwards met and married and had two children, Jelena Kljaic born in 1946, and plaintiff born in 1947. Plaintiff currently resides in Illinois.

27. Plaintiff David Levy was born April 12, 1922 in Belgrade. All of plaintiff's family property was taken in April 1941 and plaintiff was made a forced laborer until he escaped in September 1941, after which his mother and brother and grandmother were murdered in concentration camps. Plaintiff was caught in January 1942, taken in chains to Italy, where he survived to become one of the 1,000 Jews allowed to come to the United States in August 1944. Plaintiff currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, with his wife Zdenka Baum Ruchwarger-Levy.

28. Plaintiff Zdenka Baum Ruchwarger-Levy was born September 15, 1925 in Zagreb. All of plaintiff's family property was taken in April 1941 including her father's metal furniture plant. Plaintiff's father was taken to Jasenovac but released after three weeks. In November 1941 plaintiff and her family fled into the mountains, were eventually captured and sent to Italy where they spent the next year and a half until freed by the Allies and brought to the United States. Plaintiff lost 11 relatives to the extermination camps. Plaintiff met and married plaintiff David Levy in 1985 and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

29. Plaintiff Vladan Celebonovic was born October 8, 1955 in Belgrade. Plaintiff's aunt, Alice Celebonovic, born in 1910, was undergoing medical treatment in Zagreb at the beginning of the war when she was murdered by the Ustasha about April 10, 1941. Plaintiff, her only heir, is a research physicist residing in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

30. Plaintiff Desa Tomasevic Wakeman was born in Vocin, Croatia in 1923. In July 1941 she and her family including six brothers and sisters were taken by the Ustasha to Caprag, a concentration camp near Zagreb, where they joined several hundred other prominent Serbian families. Four months later this entire assemblage was the last group of alive Serbs transported by train cattle cars to Serbia. All family property, including a textile store and three homes, was confiscated by the Ustasha and later destroyed. In Caprag, money and other belongings including gold was taken away from Plaintiff's mother and grandmother. Between 1942 and 1945 several members of Plaintiff's family on her father's side disappeared in Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska camps. Plaintiff resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

31. Plaintiff Daniel Pyevich parents were born in Citluk, near Gospic, Lika, and emigrated to the United States in 1928. On Plaintiff's father's side, in 1941 his father's mother, two brothers, the son and daughter of his sister, and the daughter of a brother were killed. Plaintiff's uncle Mile was killed in a brutal fashion by being thrown into the notorious Jadovno pit outside of Gospic, where hundreds of Serbs met their death. All of the property of these murdered relatives was looted or destroyed. Plaintiff resides in Hillsdale, Illinois.

32. Plaintiff Koviljka Popovic is the daughter of Bozo Kolak, a farmer of the village of Tulje, Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In March 1944 while Bozo Kolak was in his fields with his 7 year old son Branko, Ustasha came upon them and killed Kolak and wounded Branko in both of his legs. The killers then burned down his home entirely on the same day, the family thus losing all their worldly possessions. Branko Kolak survives as a pensioner in Tulje, along with a sister Slavka Kolak. Plaintiff resides in Smederevo, Yugoslavia.

33. Plaintiff Ukraine Organization of Ukrainian Antifascist Resistance Fighters is recognized by Ukrainian Ministry of Justice as an official representative of 8,500 former partisans and resistors of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine and concentration camp victims.

34. Plaintiff Ukrainian Union of Nazi Victims And Prisoners represents over 300,000 former slave and forced laborers, prisoners, concentration camp, and ghetto survivors.

35. Plaintiff Jasenovac Research Institute was established in 1998 as a non-profit (503-1) human rights organization and research institute registered in the state of Michigan, committed to establishing the truth about the Holocaust in Yugoslavia, dedicated to the search for justice for the crimes of genocide committed at the Jasenovac concentration camp system and wartime Yugoslavia against Serbs, Jews, and Romas, and to promote cooperation and better relations between all peoples in the Balkans.

36. Plaintiff International Union of Former Juvenile Prisoners of Fascism represents Nazi victims in the former Soviet Union including Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

37. Defendant Vatican Bank, also known by its official title "Istituto per le Opere di Religione" or Institute of Religious Works ("IOR") has its principal place of business in Vatican City Rome, Italy but conducts business and financial transactions worldwide on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, including the United States and California, with total assets believed to be in excess of 3 billion dollars. Defendant, IOR, engages in for-profit merchant banking transactions in the United States, California, and elsewhere through its investments and transactions with other banks. The Vatican Bank is headed by a Bishop but also has an advisory panel consisting of prominent European and American bankers.⁽²⁾

38. Defendant Franciscan Order, also known as First Order of Franciscans (OFM) includes and/or included several Croatian Franciscan Orders in California, the United States, Croatia, and Italy. Upon information and belief, the OFM coordinated, operated, and managed the affairs of the "ratline" or Nazi smuggling operation based at the College of San Girolamo degli illirici and provided aid to former Ustasha after 1945 through its Chief Economist and General Definitor Dominic Mandic. According to declassified CIA documents, Mandic was the Vatican representative to the "ratline," he provided means including but not limited to money laundering services, false identity papers for Ustashi war criminals, so called "scholarships" that permitted postwar Ustashi operatives to travel freely to Rome and provided safe-houses for wanted Ustashi war criminals in Rome.

39. The Croatian Liberation Movement aka HOP (Hrvatski Oslobodilacki Pokret) was founded in 1956 by the war criminal Ante Pavelic as the successor to the Ustasha government. The HOP has been active worldwide and in particular in Croatia, Argentina, the United States, and Canada. As the successor organization to the Ustasha government, the HOP had access to looted funds to finance the postwar activities of itself and its officers including war criminals such as Pavelic (President of Puppet Croatia), Artukovic (Ustasha Minister of Justice), Sakic (Jasenovac Concentration Camp Commander) and Hefer (Ustasha Minister of Agriculture). The Croatian Liberation Movement functioned as a government in exile and coordinated terrorist activities in the United States and elsewhere.

40. Defendant SNB is the central bank of Switzerland. During World War II the SNB was the central relay point for gold the Nazis sold to neutral nations during World War II according to a May 1998 Swiss government historical report issued by the Bergier Commission. This report at page 25 mentions certain "convoluted" Croatian gold transactions involving the SNB and other unnamed Swiss banks as being beyond the scope of the report. Pages 43 and 70 of the report also list some gold transactions with the Croatian National Bank. Documents of the CIA predecessor, the OSS, indicate that as late as June 1944, 500 kilograms of gold were deposited in the SNB by the Ustasha Croatian National Bank. And that at least two and half million Swiss Francs were on deposit at the SNB to the credit of the Croatian National Bank. A 1946 report by a US Treasury Department Special Agent indicated 12 to 16 million Swiss Francs in dispute in Switzerland that had been deposited by the Croatian National Bank and a 1949 CIA report indicated that in Spring of 1945, shortly before the collapse of the Croatian government, the president of the Croatian State Bank traveled to Switzerland in his official capacity in connection with 1700 kilograms of gold and 40,000 kilograms of silver that were on deposit at the SNB and other Swiss banks. The Eizenstat report on "Fate of the Ustasha Treasury" provides further details on transfers of gold and silver from Croatia to the SNB, most or all of it looted. According to the Eizenstat report at least 358 kilograms of gold thought to be loot from victims of the Ustasha remains unaccounted for. No specific accounting of the Ustasha transactions with the SNB and other Swiss Banks has yet to be produced. Postwar, Swiss banking establishments continued their involvement with the Ustasha according to the Eizenstat report and declassified government documents. As late as January 1952 the CIA reported five million Swiss francs consisting of Ustasha loot transferred from Switzerland to Pavelic in Argentina.

41. Defendants, Does One through One Hundred inclusive, are unknown Catholic Religious Orders and private banking corporations who conduct business in, and who are also responsible for the acts complained of herein. Plaintiffs are unaware of the true names or capacities of the Defendants sued herein under the fictitious names of Does One through One Hundred inclusive, and after ascertaining the true identity of a Defendant sued as a "Doe," Plaintiffs will amend the Complaint accordingly.

42. "Nazi Regime" is defined as the National Socialist government of Germany from 1933 through 1945, as more specifically defined in "the Accused Organizations and Individuals" in The Nuremberg Trial, 6 F.R.D. 69 (1946), and persons, organizations or entities which acted in furtherance of the interests of, on behalf of, or under the authority of, that government (including persons, organizations and/or entities of the European Axis countries).

43. The "Ustasha Regime" is defined as the German puppet, fascist government of Croatia under the direction of its leader, Ante Pavelic, known as the "Poglavnik" (Leader). The Ustasha Regime operated under German protectorate from 1941 through 1945 and included numerous members of the Franciscan Order as both military and civil functionaries.

44. "Looted Assets" is defined as any and all personal, commercial, real, and/or intangible property, including cash, securities, silver, gold, jewelry, businesses, art masterpieces, equipment and intellectual property, that was illegally and/or improperly taken from the ownership or control of an individual, organization or entity, by means including, but not limited to, theft, forced transfer and exploitation, during the period of 1941 through 1946 by any person, organization or entity acting on behalf of, or in furtherance of the acts of, the Nazi or Ustasha Regime, its officials or related entities, in connection with crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes against peace, genocide, or any other violations of fundamental human rights.

45. "Croatian or Ustasha Treasury" refers to amounts of gold, silver, gems, currency, and other valuables plundered and looted from Serbs, Jews, Romani, and citizens of the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine. According to declassified CIA documents, in 1945 the Croatian Treasury consisted of 1700 kilograms of gold, 40,000 kilograms of silver, 2.5 million Swiss francs and a significant amount of diamonds, jewels, and other valuables. The treasury existed independent from the Nazi Regime in part as a reward for the Ustasha cooperation in the pursuit of Axis goals in the former Soviet Union.

46. The Nazi Regime maintained a policy of looting the assets of its persecution targets to finance its illegal war, collecting the looted assets in central depositories, and transferring the looted assets to the Doe Defendant Banks in return for currency needed to purchase war material. The Ustasha Regime mirrored the Nazi Regime in its financial policies. The Ustasha Regime, like the Nazi Regime, maintained concentration camps and confiscated the assets of its victims. More than 700,000 victims were "liquidated" by the Ustasha in their bloody campaign to clear "Greater Croatia" of Serbs, Romani, and Jews. The plundered and looted assets of the Ustasha victims were deposited in the Ustasha Treasury.

47. When Nazi Germany invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, the Ustasha leader, Ante Pavelic, met with the military and civilian leadership of Croatia to decide how best to support their German ally. All present were strongly in favor of the German attack, seeing the invasion as a battle between the progressive forces of Europe against the Communist forces in the East. All present agreed that Croatia should participate in the invasion alongside Germany. Pavelic prepared a letter the following day, on June 23, 1941. In his letter, Pavelic explained to Hitler the wishes of the Croatian people to join the battle of "all freedom loving nations against Communism." Pavelic offered ground, sea and air forces, to be committed "as soon as possible" to fight alongside Germany. Hitler responded to Pavelic's letter on July 1, 1941, accepting the Croatian offer and thanking them for their service.

48. Beginning in July 1941, Croatian ground, sea, and air forces invaded the Soviet Union including Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Croatian units wore German uniforms and provided front line and support units in Russian, Belarus, and Russia. Croatian air force and navy units patrolled the Black and Azov Seas. Croatian ground troops took part in battles in Kiev, Kharkov, and Stalingrad. In September 1942, Pavelic, on behalf of the Croatian government, visited Croatian troops outside Stalingrad.

49. Croatian troops assisted the German occupiers of Ukraine in their systematic plunder and looting of Ukrainian resources and individual property. In exchange for the Croatian assistance in Ukraine, the Ustasha were given a free hand in Croatia and Bosnia to loot, plunder and terrorize the non-Croatian populace. The Ustasha Treasury contained plunder from Ukraine and assets seized from the Ustasha victims in Yugoslavia.

50. In addition to the property crimes and Nazi collaboration committed in the former Soviet Union, the Ustasha engaged in atrocities against Serbs, Jews, and Roma in Croatia.

51. The Ustasha's Minister of the Interior, Andrija Artukovic,⁽³⁾ ordered Jews and Serbs of Zagreb to leave their homes where they were liquidated immediately or sent to one of the many concentration camps. By late April 1941 Serbs were forced to wear a blue armband with the letter "P", the initial for Orthodox (Pravoslavac). The Jews had to wear the Star of David on their sleeves, and later, across their backs.

52. Serbs, Jews, and the Roma were slaughtered in their villages after unspeakable tortures or burned alive in their churches. Those that were not murdered were expelled to Serbia proper after being despoiled of all their property or forcibly converted to the Roman Catholic faith by Franciscan and Roman Catholic clergy. Many were used as slave laborers. The remaining people were taken to concentration camps where the majority perished.

53. Jasenovac Concentration Camp complex, termed by historians as the "Auschwitz of the Balkans," was the home of indescribable brutality against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Not only were inmates butchered but slave and forced labor was performed for the benefit of the Ustasha regime. Historians estimate that the Ustasha murdered between 700,000 to one million victims in their bloody campaign to clear "Greater Croatia" of Serbs, Roma, and Jews.

54. Many high officials of the Ustasha government were Roman Catholic clergy and, in particular, Franciscans. Indeed, the Vatican maintained an "Apostolic visitor" in Zagreb, the Croatian capital from 1941 until the end of the War. Relations between the Vatican and the Ustasha were cordial. The Papal legate in Croatia was Mgr. Marcone, who openly blessed the Ustasha, publicly gave the Fascist salute, and transmitted instructions from Rome to the Croatian clergy and episcopacy, principally concerning the forced conversions of the Serb Orthodox.

55. One of the most notorious examples of Franciscan clerical killers being Father Miroslav Filopovic-Majstorovic known as "Brother Satan" who personally killed tens of thousand of Serbs at Jasenovac concentration camp, he was hanged as a war criminal in 1946. Nonetheless, the Franciscan Order did not punish priests associated with the Ustasha but instead assisted Ustasha war criminals evade justice by providing means, laundering loot, hiding war criminals at Franciscan properties, and publishing Ustasha propaganda in Italy, the United States, and elsewhere. Other priests like Krunoslav Draganavic who later headed the ratline at San Girolamo served in the Ustasha Ministry of Colonization, which forcibly converted Serbs to Roman Catholicism. Indeed, the Vatican maintained an "Apostolic visitor" in Zagreb, the Croatian capital from 1941 until the end of the War. Relations between the Vatican and the Ustasha were cordial. The Papal legate in Croatia was Mgr. Marcone, who openly blessed the Ustasha, publicly gave the Fascist salute, and transmitted instructions from Rome to the Croatian clergy and episcopacy, principally concerning the forced conversions of the Serb Orthodox. Postwar, top Ustasha criminals like Pavelic, Artukovic, Luburic, and many others were helped to escape justice by priests, hidden on church property, disguised as priests, and even driven about Rome in vehicles with Papal diplomatic license plates.

56. Upon the demise of the Ustasha Regime in 1945, all or a portion of the Ustasha Treasury was transferred to cooperative Roman Catholic clergyman and Franciscans for transport to Rome where Franciscans sympathetic to the Ustasha were based. Intelligence reports confirm that in their attempts to escape, the Ustasha were found at the British-occupied Austro-Swiss border with gold valued at 350 million Swiss francs. Intelligence reports also confirm that more than 200 million Swiss francs were eventually transferred to Vatican City and the IOR with the assistance of Roman Catholic clergy and the Franciscan Order.⁽⁴⁾

57. According to the Eizenstat Report, the Swiss National Bank acted as a depository for Ustasha loot. The Independent Commission of Experts - Switzerland - Second World War, known as the Bergier Commission, also links Swiss banks with Croatian wartime gold transactions (p. 25 of report). United States OSS documents as earlier as 1944 indicate 500 kilograms of gold were deposited by the Croatians in the Swiss National Bank along with 2.5 million francs. A 1946 United Treasury Department report estimates 12 to 16 million francs in gold deposits were still controlled by the Ustasha in Swiss bank accounts. A 1949 CIA document alleges that of 1945, the Ustasha had holdings of 2.5 million Swiss francs, 1,700 kilograms of gold, and 40,000 kilograms of silver in Swiss accounts. A 1948 U.S. Army Intelligence reports confirmed that 2,400 kilos of Ustasha stolen gold were moved from the Vatican to one of the Vatican's secret Swiss bank accounts. Finally, a 1952 CIA document indicates Pavelic, the Ustasha leader, transferred 5 million Swiss francs from Switzerland to Argentina.

58. The Swiss National Bank in exchange for a dismissal of Rosenberg v. Swiss Nat'l Bank, No. CV-98-1647 (DDC filed June 29, 1998), a lawsuit filed by Holocaust survivors, entered into the agreement in In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation No. 96 Civ. 4849 (ERK) (USDC ED NY) and after negotiations involving the US State Department, the SNB waived its immunity in Holocaust banking related matters although the SNB did not directly contribute monetarily to the 1.25 billion dollar settlement. Jews and Gypsies who are members of the proposed class herein are covered under the terms of In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation. However Serbs and others who make up the bulk of potential class members are not class members of In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation.

59. Transfer of funds and financial transactions were made by IOR. Ustasha Treasury assets were banked by IOR for use in Argentine, Spain and elsewhere. Not only were the IOR and the Franciscans aware of the origins of the Ustasha Treasury, but covert Ustasha activities, under the guise of religious orders, were officially tolerated at the highest levels in the Vatican. In 1956 the overt successor to the Ustasha, the Croatian Liberation Movement, was founded by Ante Pavelic as the final beneficiary of the Croatian wartime Treasury along with its terrorist front groups. Franciscans, and other religious groups, have continued to use the funds derived from the Ustasha treasury, as well as funds derived from religious pilgrims visiting false Marian apparition sites such as in Medjugorje since 1981, to support the Croatian armed forces in their ethnic cleansing battles against Bosnian Serbs, Muslims, and Roma.

60. IOR reaped a competitive advantage in the post World War II years through the Ustasha Treasury related transactions. The Ustasha Treasury provided substantial assets to IOR in form of gold, silver, cash, and gems. As the principal post war banker to the Ustasha Government in Exile, the IOR profited from Ustasha Treasury transactions involving banks in various European and South American countries. The Franciscan Order and unknown Catholic Religious Orders, reaped similar monetary benefits from their involvement with the Ustasha Treasury.

61. IOR has consistently refused requests for an accounting of the Ustasha Treasury, including recent queries by the United States State Department, the London Conference on Nazi Gold of December 2, 1997, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

62. This action is brought and may properly be maintained as a class action pursuant to the provisions of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. Plaintiffs bring this action on behalf of themselves and a class of all Jews, Serbs, and former Soviet Union citizens (and their heirs and beneficiaries), who suffered monetary and/or property losses or forced into slave labor due to the systematic and brutal extermination of Jews, Serbs, and Romani by the Nazi puppet Ustasha Regime, and as a result of the occupation of the Soviet Union by Croatian military forces in concert with their German occupation forces.

63. The exact number of the members of the class, as identified above, is not known to Plaintiffs, but it is estimated that members of the class number in the tens or hundreds of thousands and are so numerous that joinder of individual members herein is impracticable.

64. Questions of fact and law common to the class predominate over any questions affecting only individual members. Common questions of fact and law include:

(a) Whether the IOR, Franciscan Order, Unknown Catholic Religious Orders, SNB, Croatian Liberation Movement, and/or Defendant Banks improperly retained or converted looted assets of the Plaintiffs.

(b) Whether Defendants were unjustly enriched by their wrongful conduct.

(c) Whether Plaintiffs experienced irreparable harm by Defendants' wrongful taking of Plaintiffs' property and goods, supporting a claim for restitution.

(d) Whether Defendants have failed to account for the Ustasha Treasury.

(e) Whether Defendants were directly and/or indirectly involved with the torture, plundering and/or conversion of Plaintiffs and their property and Plaintiffs' labor in violation of international law.

65. Plaintiffs' claims are typical of the claims of the other members of the Class, since all such claims arise out of Defendants' actions or the actions of its agents, which resulted in the deaths, torture, assault, plunder and the loss of Plaintiffs' and their ancestors' rightful property, which gives Plaintiffs the right to the relief sought.

66. There is no conflict as between the named Plaintiffs and the members of the class which they represent with respect to this action, or with respect to the claims for relief set forth herein.

67. Plaintiffs are committed to the vigorous prosecution of this action and will retain competent counsel experienced in the prosecution of class actions. Accordingly, Plaintiffs are adequate representatives of the Class and will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the Class.

68. The prosecution of separate actions by individual members of the Class would create a risk of inconsistent or varying adjudications, which would establish incompatible standards of conduct for the defendants in this action.

69. Plaintiffs anticipate that there will be no difficulty in the management of this litigation. A class action is superior to other available methods for fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy. Accordingly, Certification of the Plaintiff class is appropriate under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(1), (2) and/or (3).

70. Plaintiffs' legal right to seek compensation for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Second World War is preserved by the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity (26 November 1968). Accordingly, there are no statutory limitations on claims of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.

71. Furthermore, Plaintiffs' legal right to seek compensation for the deaths of their families during World War II was deferred by the London Debt Settlement Agreement of 1953, until the German court ruled, on November 7, 1997, that the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Germany had lifted the moratorium upon individual claims for compensation for World War II losses. Accordingly, statutes of limitation upon claims for compensation for World War II losses were tolled by operation of treaty from 1953 through November 7, 1997.

72. No statute of limitations has begun to run on the cause of action stated herein because Plaintiffs and Defendants' victims have remained unaware of Defendants' misconduct during World War II and have been denied access to vital information essential to pursue the stated claims as a result of Defendants' fraudulent concealment of their misconduct, without any fault or want of diligence or due care on the part of Plaintiffs or Defendants' victims.

73. Evidence of the extent of the Defendants' participation in wrongdoing has more fully come to light in recent years as a result of the disclosure of archived and declassified documents in the United States, Germany and other countries, as well as from the reports of several commissions and/or task forces created in the United States, Germany and other countries, much of which information was not available prior to the reunification of Germany and the fall of the Soviet Union.

74. Moreover, knowing that its behavior violated the laws of humanity and international law, at no time since the end of World War II have Defendants made any reasonable attempt to compensate Plaintiffs and members of the Class for their injuries and losses. Such failure should estop Defendants from interposing any time bar defense to these claims.

75. Additionally, no statute of limitations has begun to run on the cause of action stated herein because Defendants' misconduct is continuing; Defendants have not made any reasonable attempt to disgorge their illicit profits or compensate victims of the Ustasha Regime or their Nazi supporters. Defendants have continued to reap profits as a result of their actions and have refused all requests by governments and international organizations for an accounting of the funds in question. Defendants are therefore estopped from interposing any type of time bar defense to these claims.

CAUSES OF ACTION

FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION

CONVERSION

76. Plaintiffs reallege and incorporate herein, as though fully set forth, the allegations of all preceding paragraphs of the Complaint.

77. As a result of Defendants' failure and refusal to account for, acknowledge and pay to Plaintiffs the value of the property taken, Defendants, and each of them, have willfully and wrongfully misappropriated and converted the value of that property and its derivative profits into their own property.

78. As a result of Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, Plaintiffs have been injured and damaged and demand restitution and judgment against Defendants, in an amount to be determined at trial.

79. Defendants' conduct described herein was undertaken by the Defendants' officers or managing agents who were responsible for decisions. The aforesaid conduct of said managing agents and individuals was therefore undertaken for and on behalf of Defendants. Said Defendants further had advance knowledge of the actions and conduct of said individuals whose actions and conduct were ratified, authorized and approved by Defendants' managing agents and by other officers, directors or managing agents.

SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION

UNJUST ENRICHMENT

80. Plaintiffs reallege and incorporate herein, as though fully set forth, the allegations of all preceding paragraphs of the Complaint.

81. Defendants received stolen property given to them by members of the Ustasha Regime, which rightfully belongs to Plaintiffs, as well as the value of slave labor performed.

82. Defendants have failed to account for and/or pay to Plaintiffs the value of their property and profits derived therefrom and the value of slave labor performed.

83. As a result of Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, Defendants have been unjustly enriched to the detriment of Plaintiffs.

84. Plaintiffs therefore demand restitution and judgment against Defendants in an amount to be determined at trial, together with interest, attorneys' fees, and the costs of this action.

THIRD CAUSE OF ACTION

RESTITUTION

85. Plaintiffs reallege and incorporate herein, as though fully set forth, the allegations of all preceding paragraphs of the Complaint.

86. Plaintiffs' goods and property have been taken, thus denying Plaintiffs the use and enjoyment thereof; Defendants have wrongfully used and profited from that property; and compensation in damages is inadequate in that the property taken cannot be replaced and the harm inflicted cannot be undone by mere compensation.

87. As a result of Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, Plaintiffs have been injured and damaged and demand equitable remedies.

FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION

ACCOUNTING

88. Plaintiffs reallege and incorporate herein, as though fully set forth, the allegations of all preceding paragraphs of the Complaint.

89. Defendants have never accounted for or paid the value of Plaintiffs' property or the profits which Defendants have derived from that property, either during World War II or since World War II ended.

90. As a result of the value of their property having been forcibly taken from them, against their will and without just payment by Defendants, Plaintiffs have been unable to use or invest those assets.

91. As a result of Defendants' aforesaid wrongful acts and omissions, Plaintiffs have been injured and damaged and demand the equitable remedy of accounting.

FIFTH CAUSE OF ACTION

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

92. Plaintiffs reallege and incorporate herein, as though fully set forth, the allegations of all preceding paragraphs of the Complaint.

93. Defendants participated in the activities of the Ustasha Regime in furtherance of the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, torture, rape, starvation, physical and mental abuse, summary execution and genocide. Specifically, the actions and conduct of Defendants, in addition to being profitable, actively assisted the war objectives of the Ustasha Regime.

94. Defendants knowingly facilitated and aided and abetted the activities of war criminals who had used torture and starvation in order to further obtain victims' possessions and belongings. Defendants created a "ratline" or "pipeline" to help the war criminals flee from prosecution. By aiding and abetting of war criminals who had engaged in subjecting the Plaintiffs and the Plaintiff class to brutally inhumane conditions, physical abuse, torture, starvation and summary execution, violated international and federal law.

95. Defendants IOR, SNB, and the Franciscan Order, by assisting the Nazi backed Ustasha Regime in preserving their Treasury for the purpose of continuing a Government in Exile through the Croatian Liberation Movement and evading justice for genocidal war crimes thereby becoming joint venturers with the Ustasha with respect to these activities - committed war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, and violated the laws of Yugoslavia and Soviet Union, state common law, and international treaties and customary international law enforceable in this Court as federal common law and the law of nations by purposeful and intentional Obstruction of Justice. The IOR abused its position as the Papal bank of Vatican City by a clear pattern of violation of diplomatic norms by protecting known war criminals and their assets from arrest and seizure. The SNB has not provided an accounting of its banking relations with the Ustasha nor revealed the names of correspondent banks in Switzerland and elsewhere who also provided banking services to the Ustasha..

96. Defendants' actions were in violation of numerous international treaties and the fundamental human rights laws prohibiting genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. Defendants' actions violated customary international law, a law which "results from a general and consistent practice of states followed by them from a sense of legal obligation." Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, § 102 (2)(1987). Plaintiffs cite numerous treaties, court decisions and the United Nations resolutions, not as a source of their substantive rights, but rather as evidence of the content of customary international law. In further support, Plaintiffs cite the Genocide Convention; the 1919 Paris Commission on Responsibility of Authors of the War; the United Nations Charter; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Geneva Convention of 1929; the supplemental Geneva Convention of the Treatment of non-Combatants During World War Time; the principles of customary international law recognized by the Nuremberg Tribunals; the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the Hague Convention of 1907.

97. Additionally, Defendants committed torts under the laws of the United States, requiring Defendants to pay Plaintiffs and the Class members appropriate compensatory and punitive damages for their injuries and losses.

WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs pray that the Court:

1. Certify this action as a class action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, and designating named Plaintiffs as the class representatives and counsel for Plaintiffs as Class counsel.

2. Declare that Defendants by trafficking in, retaining, disposing of and concealing assets looted from targets of the Ustasha Regime with knowledge that the assets had been obtained through the systematic persecution, torture, slave labor, force, and murder, violated international treaties and customary international law enforceable in this Court as federal common law, the law of the nations and international law.

3. Order Defendants to make available all information relating to the Ustasha Treasury in order that an accounting of assets may be realized.

4. Direct Defendants to return all identifiable property looted from Plaintiffs and received by Defendants.

5. Award Plaintiffs the value of any identified property deposited by, or looted from, Plaintiffs and received by Defendants plus interest compounded annually since 1941.

6. Award Plaintiffs compensatory and punitive damages arising out of Defendants' unlawful behavior in trafficking in, retaining, disposing and concealing Looted Assets or profits of the Ustasha Regime with knowledge that the assets or profits were the fruits of Nazi-Ustasha violations of international law and were used to assist war criminals to evade justice.

7. Order Defendants to disgorge any profits earned by trafficking in, disposing of or concealing the Ustasha Treasury which was the fruits of violations of international law.

8. Grant Plaintiffs a jury trial on all issues so triable.

9. Award Plaintiffs the costs of this action, including reasonable attorneys' fees and expert fees; and,

10. Grant such other and further relief as shall seem just to the Court.

DATED: July 31, 2000

TOM EASTON CSB#109218

JONATHAN H. LEVY CSB# 158032

Law Office of Thomas Dewey Easton

1335 Pebble Beach Drive

Crescent City, CA 95531

Tel: 707-464-4513

Fax: 707-465-5389

By: ________________________________

Tom Easton

Attorneys for Plaintiffs and the Class

Of Counsel:

K. LEE BOYD CSB #189496

Pepperdine University Law School

24255 Pacific Coast Highway

Malibu CA 90263

Tel: (310) 317-7684

MILOSH MILENKOVICH, ESQ.

5851 Pearl Road, Suite 302

Parma Heights OH 44130

Tel: (440)840-2770

JOY ROTHENBERG, ESQ.
9343 Lansford Drive

Cincinnati OH 45242

1. Among the top Nazi beneficiaries of the Ustasha-Vatican treasure was Adolf Eichmann who received a new identity as a "Croatian refugee" before being smuggled to South America.

2. The Banco Ambrosiano failure of 1982 is the best known of IOR's covert banking transactions.

3. Artukovic resided in California for over 30 years before he was extradited in 1985 to face charges of murder in Yugoslavia. In re Extradition of Andrija Artukovic, 628 F.Supp. 1370 (C.D. Cal. 1985)

4. Letter from U.S. Treasury Department Emerson Bigelow stationed in Italy to Harold Glasser, Director of Monetary Research of October 21, 1946.