(CN) - The Court of Federal Claims said it lacks jurisdiction to decide if the former chief financial officer of a professional golf tour is entitled to more than $141,600 after he was wrongfully convicted of siphoning $5,000 from a corporate account.
In 2000 Gregory V. Wood agreed to guarantee the prize money and operating expenses for the Pro Tour Hawaii 2001 International Golf Tour. But he never delivered the money and, at the end of the year, he transferred $5,075 from a corporate account into his personal account, the ruling states.
A day later, he wired $5,000 from his personal account to a California businessman as part of an unrelated transaction.
Wood was arrested, tried and convicted of wire fraud.
In December 2007 the 9th Circuit reversed his conviction, ruling that the $5,000 wire transfer wasn't made "in furtherance of the scheme to defraud" Pro Tour Hawaii.
Wood sued the United States in claims court, demanding more than $141,600 for his alleged wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
For the court to have jurisdiction, Wood needed to provide a "true certificate of innocence" from the trial court - something he never did, the court said.
It rejected Wood's claims that such certificates were mere "dicta" from "old Court of Claims decisions," and that the one-page 9th Circuit opinion would suffice.
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