The controversial U.S. lawyer campaigning for massive international compensation for victims of South African apartheid, promised Saturday to target scores more companies in his claim.

Ed Fagan made the pledge as he launched a 30-day roadshow to gather support for his class action suit against banks and corporations he says bolstered apartheid and contributed to the death, injury and torture of thousands of black South Africans.

More than 2,000 people have called the toll-free lines set up by his Apartheid Claims Taskforce to register claims, but Fagan said he planned now to tour black townships and rural areas to find those without access to transport and telephones.

He declined to name the firms he planned to add to his list, but said they would include British, U.S., German and French companies in sectors including construction, weapons, pharmaceutical, electronics and energy.

Fagan named Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS as well as U.S.-based Citigroup Inc in the initial lawsuit filed in the United States on June 17.

He has since added International Business Machines and banks Deutsche, Commerzbank and Dresdner, a unit of insurer Allianz AG.

Asked about reports he had added Siemens and DaimlerChrysler to the list, he said: “Have we filed against them? No. Are we investigating them? Yes, we are.”

Fagan told a news conference in Cape Town his case would go before a judge in New York for the first time on August 9 to establish who the claimants and alleged apartheid conspirators are.

LOOKING FOR $100 BILLION

He said he hoped the case would finish within two to five years.

Fagan, who shot to fame in the 1990s for helping Holocaust victims win a $1.25 billion settlement from Swiss banks, said his claim was not for a specific amount, but he expected compensation in the order of $100 billion for apartheid victims.

“We go to court and we say these people must be paid compensation in an amount to be determined by the court,” he said.

“How much? I’m looking to the German model and that German model over the past 55 years has seen repayment, compensation and common benefit funds in excess of $100 billion,” he told Reuters after the news conference.

Referring to a recent U.S. jury award to a person burned by hot coffee from a fast-food outlet, he said he expected the firms named in the final apartheid claim to settle out of court.

“America is the land of the $2 million hot-coffee award. If this case goes to a jury, these guys are in serious trouble,” Fagan said.

He denied he was raising false hopes or exploiting South Africa’s history of racism and violence, which ended with the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela, who made reconciliation the theme of his presidency despite 27 years in jail for fighting white minority rule.

“This is a continuation of the anti-apartheid movement that was so successful…transitioning from the democratic process to the compensation, reparations and a full accounting process,” Fagan said.

Insisting he was not in it for the money, Fagan said he wanted to see companies that helped to prolong apartheid rule forced to reveal their involvement and face public judgement.

Citing precedents in the United States, he said lawyers backing the claim could expect about two percent of the final award.

Brendan Boyle, Reuters, July 6, 2002