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Our Hollywood Minute

Let's not forget the Greens. They're the movie producers arrested in December 2007 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Prosecutors allege they paid more than $1.8 million in bribes to a former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand in return for $14 million in contracts to stage the Bangkok Film Festival.

According to the docket at the Los Angeles federal criminal court, their trial is now set to start on April 21st. Gerald Green, 76, and his wife Patricia, 53 -- whose screen credits as producers include Rescue Dawn -- pleaded not guilty in October last year to all 21 counts of a superseding indictment. In addition to the FCPA charges, they face counts for money laundering, illegally transporting money-laundering proceeds, and filing false tax returns. The government has also filed a forfeiture action against some of their property, and the court has issued a restraining order that prevents them from disposing of those assets at least until the trial's outcome.

The Greens face up to five years in prison for each FCPA charge, up to 10-years for each tax count, and up to 20 years for the money-laundering charges.

And in yet anther sign of growing cross-border cooperation in the fight against public corruption, the Thai Department of Special Investigation has apparently been sharing potential evidence it collected with U.S. authorities. Pretrial maneuverings show that the Greens have tangled with prosecutors over "hundreds of documents written in the Thai language, which the plaintiff, United States of America, apparently received from the Kingdom of Thailand." The U.S. hasn't said yet which of those documents it intends to use at trial.

The Thai official at the center of the case against the Greens is reported to be Juthamas Siriwan, who headed the Tourism Authority of Thailand from 2001 to 2006 and was in charge of the film festival the Greens produced. She denies doing anything wrong and has threatened to sue anyone implicating her in the case. She resigned as deputy chair of Thailand's Puea Pandin (People's Power) Party soon after the Greens' arrest in December 2007.

Download the government's first superseding indictment here.

Download the parties' December 15, 2008 joint status memo here.
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Full post as published by The FCPA Blog on January 14, 2009 (boomark / email).