Prison, Poverty And Appeals

The Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island, CaliforniaThey won’t be home for Christmas.

Two weeks ago, the first husband and wife ever convicted of FCPA-related offenses started serving their six-month prison terms.

Gerald Green, 78, went to the federal correctional institution at Terminal Island, California, a low security jail for male inmates near LA harbor.

His wife Patricia, 55, traveled 85 miles northeast of LA, to the Victorville prison in Adelanto, California. The satellite camp there for female offenders is a minimum security facility.

The former high-flying Hollywood movie producers were convicted last year of paying $1.8 million in bribes to Juthamas Siriwan, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. In exchange, prosecutors said, the Greens obtained contracts worth about $13.5 million to produce the Bangkok film festival.

An LA jury found them guilty of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, nine counts of violating the FCPA, and seven counts of money laundering. Patricia Green was also found guilty of two counts of falsely subscribing to a U.S. income tax return. The government wanted them each to serve ten years in prison.

Their six-month prison terms handed down by federal judge George Wu were among the most lenient in recent FCPA cases. But Judge Wu also granted the government’s forfeiture action against the Greens.

The DOJ is appealing against the short prison terms and the Greens are appealing their convictions. The final briefs aren’t due until late April.

For the appeals, Gerald Green will have a court-appointed lawyer. He can’t afford to hire his own. So on November 10, Judge Wu allowed him to proceed in forma pauperis. That means a lawyer will be appointed for him and paid by the government.

Meanwhile, the DOJ is pressing ahead with the forfeiture order against the couple. At a hearing scheduled for January 24, prosecutors will try to seize their West Hollywood home. Each of the Greens owe $1,049,465 under the forfeiture, plus their shares in their company, Artist Design Corp., and its pension plan. Although the West Hollywood house on Lloyd Place is owned by Patricia Green alone, the government says the Greens can’t satisfy the forfeiture judgment unless it’s sold at auction.

So even after Christmas, they probably won’t be going home — at least not to that home.

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Download a copy of Judge George Wu’s November 10, 2010 order on Gerald Green’s motion for leave to appeal in forma pauperis in U.S. v. Gerald Green here.

Download a copy of the government’s Motion for an Order Amending Forfeiture Oder to Include Substitute Assets or, Alternatively, to Apply Substitute Assets to Money Judgments of Forfeiture in U.S. v. Gerald Green and Patricia Green here.