Over the past five years, the U.S. Department of Justice has pushed anti-bribery investigations and prosecutions to dominate global law enforcement’s focus. The explosion of anti-bribery actions from 2007 to 2010 was characterized by large corporate financial settlements and very few challenges to DOJ’s authority. The second generation of these cases, however, has demonstrated weaknesses in DOJ’s enforcement of the archaic Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). DOJ appears undeterred nonetheless and has recently turned to the U.S. money laundering laws to circumvent the FCPA’s substantive and legislative limitations and expand its jurisdictional reach.
The current prosecution of Juthamas Siriwan, the former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and her daughter, Jettisopa Siriwan, for supposed money laundering violations is a perfect example of DOJ’s recent strategy. The Siriwan case is the progeny of the 2009 conviction of Gerald and Patricia Green for violating the FCPA by making payments to Juthamas Siriwan by wire transfer to accounts in her daughter’s name. From 2002 to 2007, the Greens paid Siriwan more than $1.8 million in exchange for more than $14 million in tourism contracts. After the Greens’ convictions, DOJ did what it consistently does in FCPA investigationsit followed the trail of the Greens’ bribes and filed charges against others involved in the bribery scheme. But what is surprising about the Green follow-up investigation/prosecution is that DOJ turned its focus to Juthamas Siriwan, a foreign public official.
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