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Published on December 21, 2007

Thai authorities are under heavy pressure to investigate an alleged corruption case involving a former chief of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) who was connected to a couple arrested in the US.

Klanarong Chantik, a member of National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC), said the anti-graft body would consider the case on December 25.

Sunai Manomai-udom, director-general of Department of Special Investigation (DSI), said US-based Film Festival Management Inc, one of the firms that allegedly involved in paying bribes, would be investigated by Thai authorities as it could have violated Thai law on state procurement.

"We'll work with the NCCC to pursue this case," Sunai said.

The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has helped expose the alleged kickback scam that purportedly involved Juthamas Siriwan, the governor of the TAT at the time. Juthamas has strenuously denied any involvement in corruption.

Based on a December 7, 2007 affidavit by Elizabeth Rivas, a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), US business couple Gerald and Patricia Green were accused of violating the Act's anti-bribery provisions.

The couple allegedly paid US$1.38 million (about Bt42 million) to the governor while still in office. The payments were made to bank accounts in her daughter's name in return for various lucrative business contracts awarded by TAT, worth over $10 million.

These included running the annual Bangkok International Film Festival (BIFF) during 2003-06.

The FBI agent said the defendants had attempted to conceal their bribery in many ways, including using different business entities, some with dummy addresses and phone numbers, in order to hide the large amount of money paid by the TAT under the deals.

Secondly, the defendants made commission payments to the Thai official through foreign accounts of intermediaries and once investigation was underway attempted to make up evidence to support false explanations for corrupt payments.

Film Festival Management, Saso Entertainment, and Flying Pen were among US-incorporated companies involved in the alleged cross-border bribery scheme, which started about four years ago while the ex-TAT chief was still in office.

According to witnesses, who cooperated with FBI investigators, "the governor's commission" was paid under each of the contracts awarded by the Tourism Authority.

In short, the TAT budgets paid to cover the cost of holding the film festivals and other high-profile events were calculated in advance to cover the bribes as well as the US-based firms' profit.

The bribes or commissions were paid in the form of 41 wire transfers, that totalled $1.38 million to bank accounts allegedly in the name of the ex-TAT governor's daughter between May 2003 and October 2006. The recipient accounts were in Singapore, the United Kingdom and the Isle of Jersey.

The amounts of the wire transfers ranged from as low as $3,000 to over $100,000 per transfer.

Meanwhile, TAT Governor Phornsiri Manoharn said a fact-finding team would complete its investigation into the alleged bribery scandal within 30 days.

She said the TAT would not issue any official statement about the matter at this period because "we don't want to make things worse". She did not elaborate.

A group of police investigators arrived at the TAT's headquarters during yesterday's lunch break. Phornsiri was not at her office at the time.

Suraphon Svetsreni, the deputy TAT governor for marketing communications, said the fact-finding team was looking into the contracts management for BIFF that the TAT had entered into with Green's company.

Suraphon denied any involvement with the alleged bribery scandal although he served as secretary to the film festival's organising committee at the time.

"I had nothing to do with it. I wonder how it happened," he said.

A source, who was once a senior TAT official, said yesterday Juthamas' plan for the film festival was opposed by many members of the TAT board. They argued it needed a lot of money, over Bt200 million a year for 10 consecutive years, and was not directly concerned with the agency's main duty of promoting tourism.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said yesterday he would ask for relevant documents from US authorities about their investigation into the corruption case.

The Nation