Hollywood Heavies, Beware: Bribery Is The Watchword Of The Day
Tue Jun 10, 2008 @ 01:57PM PSTPosted by Eriq Gardner
Could Hollywood power-brokers be ensnared in a gigantic sting operation cracking down on foreign government bribery?
Recently, the Justice Department decided to prosecute "Rescue Dawn" producer Gerald Green and his wife for allegedly paying more than $900,000 in bribes to a high-level Thai government official to run an international film festival in Bangkok.
The two are being charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which has recently cracked down on companies in many industries. As anybody who has seen the last couple seasons of "The Wire" knows, there's nothing more that feds like these days than a good ol' political corruption case. We imagine that few in this administration have any love for Hollywood either.
Now there's talk in Hollywood that the DOJ may look to target others in Hollywood.
No specific investigation other than the Green case has surfaced, but last year, the LA Times reported that $237,386 was distributed by producers of the film "Sahara" on locations in Morocco to expedite filming.
Surely, this isn't the only instance of something like this happening. Those concerned may with to peruse this report by law firm, Shearman & Sterling, about the growing federal appetite for using the FCPA.