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 News from Around Banderas Bay | May 2007 
Thomas Frank White Convicted of Raping Teenage Boy
 Lorena Moguel - Associated Press
| | Photo taken following White's return to Mexico in July, 2005, where he faced federal and state charges of alleged rape, child sex abuse, child prostitution and providing drugs to minors. |
Puerto Vallarta - A U.S. businessman was convicted of raping a teenage boy and sentenced to more than 7 years in jail in Mexico.
Thomas Frank White, of San Francisco, who has spent the last four years jailed in Thailand and Mexico on allegations of having sex with minors, was sentenced to 7 years and 7.5 months in prison, Judge Laila Adriana Cholula said Tuesday.
White's lawyer in Mexico could not be reached for comment, but court officials expect the case will be appealed to the Jalisco State Supreme Court.
A friend said White, being held in a prison outside the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta, was shaken by Monday's verdict and planned to replace his legal team.
"He is a little bit shocked," Pat Kelly, who visits White daily in his cell, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
White, who founded the brokerage firm Thomas White & Co. in 1978, was arrested in Thailand in 2003 at the behest of Mexican officials and later extradited. At the time, he owned homes in Puerto Vallarta, San Francisco and Thailand.
In August, White agreed to pay $7 million to settle two civil suits filed by American and Mexican youths who claimed they were molested by the financier. That settlement was approved by a federal judge in San Francisco, but was later appealed.
International child advocates say White's case is just one example of how Americans are traveling overseas to have sex with minors.
But Kelly said White is being singled out without proof.
"There was a lot of political pressure in this case," Kelly said. "Thomas White is the poster child for sex tourism in Mexico - a lot of people are invested in his guilt."
White became a familiar face starting in the early 1990s in Puerto Vallarta, where he owned a hotel. He was known as a philanthropist and model citizen who rubbed shoulders with city officials and high society.
But allegations of abuse later surfaced, scuttling his plans to build a $4 million center from street kids. |
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