Feds Drop Green Appeal; Siriwan Facing Prosecution At Home

The government on Tuesday ended efforts to put a Hollywood producer and his wife back in prison.

Gerald Green, 79, and his wife Patricia, 56, were released from federal custody in May after serving six-month jail terms for FCPA and money-laundering violations.

An LA jury convicted them in 2009 of paying $1.8 million in bribes to Juthamas Siriwan, left, then-governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, in exchange for $13.5 million in contracts to produce the Bangkok film festival.

In October last year, the government filed a notice of appeal against the Greens’ short jail sentences.

Prosecutors had pushed for prison terms of at least ten years. But Judge George Wu gave them each six-months behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release. 

The Justice Department won a forfeiture count, leaving the Greens indigent and needing court-appointed lawyers.

The DOJ’s appeal made our list of the worst FCPA prosecution decisions ever.

In Bangkok Tuesday, Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) ruled against the former tourism official.

The Bangkok Post said Juthamas Siriwan can now be prosecuted in Thailand for accepting bribes from the Greens.

Siriwan, 64, and her daughter, Jittisopa Siriwan, 32, are fugitives from a U.S. indictment. In January last year, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles charged them with eight counts of conspiracy to launder money, transporting funds to promote unlawful activity, and aiding and abetting. The DOJ is also seeking criminal forfeiture against them.

They didn’t appear in U.S. court to answer the charges.

Siriwan was found by the NACC to have  ‘committed criminal offences as a former state official in connection with the case.’ Her daughter was found to be complicit. The finding means they can now be prosecuted in a Thai court.

The Bangkok Post said Siriwan was invited to testify at the NACC hearing but didn’t appear.

Thailand and the United States have an extradition treaty. But according to the Bangkok Post, the Thai attorney general’s office hasn’t received any extradition request from the U.S. for Siriwan and her daughter.

Download a copy of the government’s August 23, 2011 voluntary dismissal of the appeal against the Greens’ sentences here.

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Our thanks to the reader in D.C. who sent the link to the Bangkok Post story about Juthamas Siriwan.