In three years, Gerald and Patricia Green transformed the Bangkok International Film Festival, a fledgling local event, into one of the top film festivals in the world.
Gerald Green, a movie producer in Beverly Hills, Calif., whose film credits included Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn, did so well with the festival that he wanted to expand to other business deals in Thailand. So he began depositing a percentage of his profits into various overseas bank accounts maintained by the daughter of the head of Thailand’s tourism department. He said the transactions were for future projects. The Department of Justice called them bribes — $1.8 million in total.
