Posted on 06/19/2004 2:43:30 AM PDT by vikingchick
Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment charging multimillionaire San Francisco financier Robert F. White with traveling to Thailand and Mexico to molest and exploit children.
The grand jury indictment, reported by The Chronicle in April, accuses the 68-year-old White of conspiring to violate the so-called child sex tourism law. That law prohibits traveling from the United States to other countries to have sex with minors, even if the sexual activity is legal where it took place. He also is charged with conspiring to produce child pornography.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Molesting, "kids"? Really? This article surely means he was after both girls and boys, right? Why don't they just come out and say the sick bastard was raping young boys?
His lawyer sounds like he thinks child molestation is only judged as evil by religious right wingers...Looney lawyer
Why am I not surprised that he lives in SF. Obviously, he hoped to circumvent U.S. laws by going abroad. What a shameful specimen of U.S. citizenry he is. Of course, I suspect that his antics were not restricted to overseas, but that he molested plenty of boys in the SF area, too.
68 years old. What a mis-directed horny old slob. There are plenty of horny women over 40 that would be better for him:)
...to be strung-up by his...(not his thumbs). :/
White's attorney, Stuart Hanlon, predicted his client would be acquitted.
"It appears that this is part of the U.S. Justice Department's ... making legal decisions based on what they view as moral,'' Hanlon said. "It's the religious right-wing agenda of John Ashcroft. This administration feels we're the police of the world.''
White, an investor and stockbroker, founded Thomas F. White & Co. in 1978. The Chronicle reported in 2002 that he had apparently funded a children's school and shelter in a Thai resort area and paid to build an orphanage, a school and an adjoining 53-site resort hotel south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Someone else will have to volunteer to shoot this guy, I'm too busy vomiting.
*snort*
2003-02-14
Title: American Accused of Sexual Abuse of Mexican Boys Arrested in ThailandThe arrest in Bangkok this week of an American man from San Francisco accused of sexually abusing dozens of Mexican street children produced great relief amongst child human rights advocates and illustrated the globalization of the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Thomas Frank White, 67, was detained on Wednesday by officers from the Crime Suppression Division of the Bangkok police, according to Lt-Coronel Charnchai Likitkansathorn. Mexican police authorities had requested his detention and deportation after having been accused of sexually abusing up to 79 Mexican street children in the State of Jalisco in 1999. White was arrested in the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok when he was meeting with two Mexican and two American lawyers.
White, a multimillionaire and reportedly a shareholder of the Merrill Lynch Corporation, arrived in Puerto Vallarta, an idyllic Pacific coastal resort in western Mexico in the early 1990s and, according to local non-governmental organizations, was a part owner of the Hotel Iguana where many American pedophiles would come to sexually abuse homeless children. The foreigners would pick up the boys in the "Plaza Los Muertos" or they would be furnished the boys by pimps operating in this popular tourist destination. Many children allege to have been given drugs and have been sexually abused in White's home, known as the "White House".
"With the crackdown on sex tourism in Asia, many North Americans are now turning to Mexico and Central America for the sexual abuse of children", lamented Bruce Harris, the Executive Director for Latin American Programs of Casa Alianza, currently in Thailand for a Board meeting of ECPAT, an international organization fighting the commercial sexual exploitation of children around the world. Harris is the ECPAT Board representative for Latin America. "It is important for Thailand to send a clear message that their country will not accept to be a refuge for sexual abusers of children from around the world".
But not all people considered White to be a danger. The Mayor of the town of Mismaloya, close to Puerto Vallarta, considered him to be a savior, where he rescued their church and financed the installation of potable water. The then Mayor of Puerto Vallarta, David Cuevas García, stated at a public meeting on July 13th, 1999 that he considered White an "ideal investor and good citizen" and dismissed the sad narration of three homeless children, one just 11 years old, who detailed the sexual abuse they had suffered by White. The authorities decided not to investigate the children's accusations.
In September 2000, the City of Puerto Vallarta, now widely known as a sex tourism destination, gave a permit for White to build a US$ 4 million center for street children, "Los Niños de Vallarta" - The Children of Vallarta, a move blocked by NGOs such as the "Frente Mexicano Pro Derechos Humanos" and the "Fundacion FIND ninos robados y desaparecidos". It was not until October 2001 - two years after the original complaints of sexual abuse by the street children that a Criminal Court of the State of Jalisco issued an arrest warrant for the American, accusing him of the Moral Corruption of Minors and the Incitement of Prostitution of Children. White disappeared that same day.
The Mexican Federal authorities, known as the Procuraduría General de la República, opened case No. 64/2001 against White for the illegal possession of a weapon and for the possession and distribution of drugs. An INTERPOL international detention request was issued.
The now detained White is known to own several assets in Thailand, including a 10-million-baht (US$ 250,000) mansion in the city of Pattaya, a beach community some 110 km south of the capital. According to Mexican authorities, some 16,000 Mexican children survive through selling their body for sex.
White, who is now detained in a Bankok jail, is known to have traveled frequently since 2000 between Thailand and other countries including Argentina, Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia. White entered Thailand the last time on September 3rd, 2002, coming from Russia.
For more information, please contact Bruce Harris in Thailand at +662-215-0808 Room 1168 or bruce@casa-alianza.org
Fundación FIND niños robados y desaparecidos in México at + 52-333-1332489
UPDATE : 14 of May 2003
Thomas Frank White is awaiting a possible trial for corruption of minors and rape. He is also facing charges in California, where a male, age twenty, has accused White of sexually abusing him when he was 17.http://www.casa-alianza.org/EN/noticias/lmn/noticia19
Local (Dem) pol under fire for ties to alleged child abuser
Lawyer seeks help of gay politicians to fight child molester.
By Ethan Fletcher | Of The Examiner Staff
Published on Monday, October 13, 2003The leaflets were not pretty, showing an older pot-bellied man with gray hair and sunglasses with his arms around two clearly under-aged, shirtless Thai boys.
Handed out in front of the Twin Peaks Tavern in the Castro by alleged sexual abuse victims and family of victims, the photos portrayed alleged child molester, 68-year-old Thomas White and focused on local gay politician Carol Migden's association to the White case.
Written in bold letters at the top of the flyers was, "Carol Migden's family earns thousands of dollars protecting a child rapist."
The focus is Midgen, Chairperson of the California Board of Equalization, because her partner, Arguedas, represents White, says David Replogle, the attorney representing two alleged local victims. Migden served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and as an Assemblywoman.
"My intention is to continue to bring this issue to the forefront, and to point out her [Migden's] lack of moral leadership," Replogle said. She [Migden] needs to stand up and denounce Thomas White. This is not just a gay issue, but to the extent that it is we need to root out the problem."
Replogle said he wanted to draw attention efforts of fighting the sex tourism industry and requested support from local politicians in working with a global network of groups dedicated to combating the issue of sexual tourism. He called on prominent gay leaders Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-SF) and Treasurer Susan Leal to focus on the issue
Replogle claims that the United States provides the overwhelming demand for child sex in such places as Thailand, Mexico and Costa Rica. He wanted local leaders to do their part to fight the problem at their end.
A prominent local businessman and multi-millionaire, White received media attention in February when he was jailed in Thailand because of an extradition requests from Mexico.
He is wanted by Mexican authorities on sexual abuse charges brought by 14 underage boys between the ages of 10 and 16, who claim in sworn affidavits that the businessman enticed them to his home with money and supplied them with drugs. White owns a palatial residence, located in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta, dubbed the "Casa Blanca" by locals.
White formed his business, Thomas F. White & Co. Inc. in San Francisco in 1978, and made millions in investment securities and online stock brokering.
The Chicago native owns five residential properties in San Francisco, including one in the Upper Haight where the allegations of sexual abuse were to have taken place. He has given generously to the San Francisco Ballet as well as to gay and lesbian organizations.
Migden and Arguedas could not be contacted for the story, as neither were in their offices on a Sunday. Leno, calling Replogle an "ambulance chaser," said his request for support was extremely premature.
"Until this case is tried, for anyone to assume he's [White] guilty, they have no respect of mine," Leno said. "I think it's in the hands of the court, which is where it should be."
Susan Leal's campaign spokesman, Tony Winnicker, responded to Replogle's call for more leadership, by saying he was sure Leal did not condone child molestation, and pointed out that Leal serves as a chairwoman of Safehouse, a program designed to steer women away from lives of prostitution.
Two alleged local victims, Josh Beam and Danny Garcia, held posters featuring blown-up images of the flyer. Beam's brother, Jeremy, handed out flyers to people walking past.
I'm here to support my brother," Jeremy said, adding. "The money's the problem. The more money you have, the less penalties you have to pay. He can prolong and delay things."
Garcia, now 21, claims that White abused him at the age of 16. He expressed anger at Migden and other leaders for ignoring their requests for help.
"I'm angry, we've talked with them [Migden and Arguedas.] There's evidence that he's [White] guilty and they don't care," Garcia said. "If they are representing Tom, a pedophile, that makes them just as bad."
Those who financially supported plaintiff Joshua Beam during the settlement negotiations find it reprehensible that after having spent well over $20,000.00 taking care of he and his brother Jeremy, they have not received a dime in repayment, even after Joshua received well over $1Million. This says something significant about the true character of the plaintiffs in this case and their real agendas in pursuing Tom White. Who are the victims here? The two americans or the mexican kids? Apparently the two americans both smelled lots of free money and didn't seem to care who they used to get it so they could have a free ride in life.
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