05/12/2008

Associated Press

The director of a Thailand museum has been indicted on a wire fraud charge in connection with a federal investigation into looted Southeast Asian antiquities.

Roxanna Brown is scheduled to appear in a Seattle courtroom Monday after being arrested late last week.

Brown, the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand, is accused of allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms that, for tax purposes, inflated the value of antiquities donated to several Southern California museums.

Federal agents raided several Southern California museums in January, looking for artifacts smuggled into the U.S. The investigation is ongoing.