US prosecutors indicted a former governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and her daughter on charges that they accepted bribes from a Los Angeles filmmaking couple to run Bangkok International Film Festival and other projects between 2002 and 2007.

Reports on US and Canadian news websites quoted the US prosecutors as saying that former TAT governor Juthamas Siriwan and her daughter Jittisopa were charged on Tuesday with conspiracy and 8 other counts. If convicted, they each face up to twenty years in prison.

According to prosecutors, the two defendants accepted about one point eight million dollars in bribes from film producers Gerald and Patricia Green between 2002 and 2007 so the Greens could run the Bangkok film festival and land other tourism-related deals.

The scheme netted the couple, who inflated their budgets so Mrs Juthamas could be paid off, about thirtenn and a half million dollars, authorities said.

Gerald and Patricia Green had transferred a total of one point eight million Dollars to Mrs Juthamas. The payments, some of which were made in cash directly to Mrs Juthamas, were often disguised as sales commissions between 10% to 20%.

The Greens were convicted by a US court of conspiracy and money laundering in September last year. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.

Mrs Juthamas and her daughter also opened bank accounts in Singapore and the United Kingdom to receive the payments, they said.

According to news reports, prosecutors said in court documents that Gerald Green, 78, could face more than 30 years in prison, while his 55-year-old wife Patricia could receive a sentence between 19 and 24 years.

In Bangkok, Tharit Pengdit, director-general of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), said on Thursday the DSI had completed its investigation of the case and already forwarded it to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).

The case is not under the responsibility of the DSI because the acts were committed when Mrs Juthamas was still a state official, he said.

The NACC is the proper authority to decide how to preceed next, he said.

Chief prosecutor for foreign affairs Sirisak Tiyaphan said the Office of the Attorney-General had not received any information from US authorities regarding the case.

Mrs Juthamas ran for a parliamentary seat in 2007 but pulled out of the race after the allegations surfaced.

Thailand has an extradition treaty with the US, so the US could seek the two defendants' extradition, but there could be some complications about extraditing a Thai national, he said.

The Greens are the first entertainment industry figures who have been convicted under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a federal statute prohibiting corrupt payments to foreign officials for business purposes.

Source - The Bangkok Post