via The Diplomat, 04 December 2019: A brief story on the US pressing charges on Douglas Latchford, who was last week indicted for antiquities smuggling and falsification of documents.
Latchford, a muscleman who liked to be seen with the bodybuilders he oversaw as president of the Thailand Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Association, had cultivated a near legendary status in Bangkok. He also took a serious dislike to anyone who challenged his motives. But it was his reputation as a collector of fine antiquities, particularly from Cambodia, that opened the lucrative doors of high society in galleries from Hong Kong to Singapore and London to New York – enabling the octogenarian to indulge in the hedonistic high life of Bangkok. His ability to retrieve those artifacts amid Cambodia’s 30-year-war partly explains his moniker, “Dynamite Doug.”
Now Latchford is in the cross-hairs of the Department of Homeland Security and a District Attorney’s Office in the United States.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York said Latchford was charged with wire fraud, smuggling, conspiracy – each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years – and related charges “pertaining to his trafficking in stolen and looted Cambodian antiquities.”
The Diplomat, 04 December 2019
Source: US Slaps Trafficking Charges on ‘Dynamite Doug’ | The Diplomat
