Graft body: Thaksin aided Shin Corp

[KoratCat]

Graft body: Thaksin aided Shin Corp

(TNA) – The Assets Examination Committee has declared former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra quilty of giving undue market advantage to telecom giant Shin Corp owned by his family, and called for a full investigation.

AEC secretary Kaewsan Atibhodi said the panel had found Mr Thaksin guilty of malfeasance and abuse of power during his five years as premier, in order to bring about undue and inappropriate gain to Shin Corp by turning a portion of the mobile phone company's concession royalty into excise tax.

The ASC alleges that while Surapong Suebwonglee served as ICT minister, telecom firms were required under concessions granted by state-owned TOT and CAT Telecom companies to pay 10 per cent in excise tax, plus 15 per cent in royalty fees.

Such tax measures, under which Advance Info Services (AIS), a Shin Corp affiliate, was obliged to pay only a 25 per cent tax, compared to DTAC's 30 per cent excise tax levy, were determined to deter relatively new and small telecom firms which would otherwise have offered alternative, price-competitive services to the public, according to the AEC secretary.

Shin Corp, which should have paid the royalty in full, or by 25 per cent as earlier required, had earlier faced no major competition in the telecom sector, thanks to Thaksin-facilitated tax measures which kept other telecom firms under relative competitive disadvantage, he said.

Such taxation was adopted by the Thaksin administration in apparent breach both of the Constitution and a Telecommunications Act which called for free and fair competition in telecom services, he said.

Mr Kaewsan said the value of Shin Corp stocks, 49 per cent of which had been held by the Thaksin family, had sharply risen upon the introduction of the excise tax for telecom firms and culminated in a surge of the former prime minister's wealth from 20 billion baht ($583.8 million) to more than 70 billion baht ($2.043 billion) during a five year period.

Meanwhile, Mr Kaewsan added, the Assets Examination Committee also found former National Housing Authority chief Chuanpit Chaimuanwong and other senior officials of the agency guilty of misconduct - conspiring to inflate the price of a parcel of land to more than 600 million baht ($17.5 million) to a private firm with which they had connections, thus reaping an undue profit of 142 million baht ($4.1 million).

Although 52 million baht ($1.5 million) of that total was distributed as a bonus to NHA personnel, the agency's chief and his accomplices were considered to have committed malfeasance in office, the AEC chief said.

Bangkok Post May 9, 2007

[KoratCat]

Graft buster orders assets of ousted PM and his wife frozen

Assets Examination Committee (AEC) ruled on Monday to freeze assets of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his associates on charges of policy corruption and malfeasance.

AEC ordered the freezing of all bank accounts, issued inside and outside Thailand and at all financial institutions.

It also ordered banks that Thaksin and associates have accounts to report all money transaction of Thaksin and his wife's bank accounts, starting from 2001, the year Thaksin became prime minister.

The order came as AEC alleged that Thaksin abused his power and corrupted for the benefits of his Shin Corop in five projects which included his wife's purchase of Ratchadapisek land, purchase of rubber saplings, purchase of bomb detector machines for Suvarnnabhumi Airport, issuance of two and three-digit lotteries.

Among the allegations, the AEC believed that Thaksin and his associates allegedly corrupted when he sold his Shin Corp's stocks to Singapore government-owned Temasek Holdings, worth about Bt73.3 billion.

AEC found that Thaksin had already transferred from his bank account the money obtained from selling Shin Corp's shares to Temasek. Remaining money in his bank account has been vanished, reducing total wealth from Bt73.3 billion to Bt52.88 billion.

AEC's member, Kaewsan Atiphoti told reporters that Thaksin is required to defend the allegations within 60 days.

Kaewsan added that the ousted premier can appeal the freezing order.

The Nation June 11, 2007

[KoratCat]

The ruling is unfair and I will fight until the end : Thaksin

Embattled Thaksin Shinawatra criticised as "unfair" the order of Assets Examination Committee to freeze his assets.

Thaksin's spokesman, Noppadon Pattama, quoted Thaksin as saying that he will fight until the end.

"The order is not fair. I will bring the case to all courts; criminal and civil," Thaksin said.

Noppadon said Thaksin informed him in a telephone conversation after the AEC ruled on Monday to freeze assets of Thaksin and his wife; Khunying Pojaman.

Thaksin has been in exile in foreign countries after the military junta ousted him in a coup de'tat in September last year.

The Nation June 11, 2007

[KoratCat]

Thaksin, Potjaman charged

Atty-Gen to ask court to seize Ratchada land

POST REPORTERS

The prosecution has decided to indict deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Khunying Potjaman over the controversial Ratchadaphisek land purchase.

Attorney-General Pachara Yutidhammadamrong said the director-general of the Department of Special Litigation will be ordered to file the indictment with the Supreme Court's Political Crime Section on Thursday.

In the indictment, the prosecution will ask the court to order the seizure of the 772 million baht block of land and transfer ownership to the state.

Since neither Mr Thaksin nor his wife were in Thailand, the prosecution would not put them before the court on Thursday, he said.

This was compliant with the criminal procedure code for political office holders.

When the court accepts the indictment, it will set a date for the couple to appear before the bench to acknowledge the charges against them, Mr Pachara said.

"Considering the evidence presented by the Assets Scrutiny Committee it is obvious that the land deal was tainted with corruption," Mr Pachara said.

The original value of the Ratchadapisek land before the financial crisis and before it was put up for sale was estimated at 2.1 billion baht.

The evaluation after the crisis came to 870 million baht. The 33-rai plot was eventually auctioned off by the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) to Khunying Potjaman in 2003 for 772 million baht, he said.

The purchase was made when Mr Thaksin was head of the government.

Mr Pachara said state power was abused to benefit someone involed in the purchase.

On May 24, the ASC's inquiry team presented its findings and evidence to the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) after it had found Mr Thaksin and his wife, Khunying Potjaman, in the wrong over the land deal.

The inquiry team recommended that the 772 million baht be seized from the couple.

The FIDF is a juristic entity separated from the Bank of Thailand set up to rehabilitate financial institutions affected by the 1997 financial crisis.

The prosecution set up a 10-member committee to consider the ASC's investigation report.

The members spent about three weeks studying it before deciding to indict Mr Thaksin and his wife yesterday.

The couple are accused of breaching Article 100 of the National Counter Corruption Act, which bars state officials and their spouses from doing business with a state agency.

If convicted, they face imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to 60,000 baht.

Mr Thaksin and Khunying Potjaman were also charged with malfeasance under the Criminal Procedures Code.

If found guilty, they face imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine of between 2,000 and 20,000 baht.

Praphan Sapsaeng, chief justice of the Supreme Court's Political Crime Section, said that Mr Thaksin and his wife must show up in court on the first day of the hearing of the case, which will be fixed later on. Arrest warrants would be issued for them if they failed to show up, Mr Praphan said.

The Criminal Court yesterday started the first witness hearings in a case in which the attorney-general accuses Khunying Potjaman, her stepbrother Bannapot Damapong and her secretary Kanchana Honghern of tax evasion.

Khunying Potjaman is alleged to have made a tax-free transfer of 4.5 million shares in Shinawatra Computer and Communications Co worth 738 million baht to Mr Bannapot as a "gift".

The Criminal Court rejected Khunying Potjaman's lawsuits accusing 11 members of the ASC, the director-general of the Legal Execution Department, and OAG officials of malfeasance in their inquiry into the Ratchadaphisek land case. Khunying Potjaman filed the lawsuits last Wednesday .

The court rejected the suit against ASC chairman Nam Yimyaem as constituting double jeopardy. It said it had tried a similar case lodged against Mr Nam on a separate occasion by Khunying Potjaman on May 11.

Bangkok Post June 19, 2007

[KoratCat]

Another seven bank accounts ordered frozen by ASC

AMPA SANTIMATANEDOL

The Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) has ordered a freeze on another seven bank accounts at Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank, involving eight billion baht, which was withdrawn shortly before the panel ordered the assets of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and five of his kin frozen.

''The money is now lying in the bank accounts of members of the Shinawatra and Damapong families,'' said ASC spokesman Sak Korsaengruang.

On June 11, the ASC ordered a freeze on 21 local bank accounts of Mr Thaksin, his wife Potjaman, their two grown-up children Panthongtae and Pinthongta, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra and Khunying Potjaman's stepbrother Bannapot Damapong. The freeze was ordered on 52 billion of the 73 billion baht the Shinawatra and Damapong families had together earned from the sale of their shares in Shin Corp to Singapore-based Temasek Holdings in January last year.

As of June 4, the money in the 21 accounts came to 52 billion baht. However, on June 12, when local banks enforced the ASC order and froze the 21 accounts, eight billion baht was missing.

Mr Sak said after an ASC meeting yesterday that the ASC had found the missing money from the 21 frozen accounts in the accounts of people close to the Shinawatra and Damapong families at the two banks.

Four of the accounts, at Bangkok Bank's Soi Aree branch, belong to SC Office Plaza Co, PT Corporation Co, Worth Supply Co, and IOA Management Co. The fifth account, under the name of Thirakupt Legal Advisory Co, is at Bangkok Bank's Ratchadaphisek branch.

The other two accounts are at the Siam Commercial Bank's's Ratchadaphisek branch and are held by Chinnicha Wongsawat and Mr Bannapot. Ms Chinnicha is the daughter of Yaowapa Wongsawat, Mr Thaksin's younger sister.

In those seven accounts, the ASC is only freezing what was transferred from the 21 accounts, said Mr Sak.

Mr Sak said the ASC is also searching for the other 21 billion baht which disappeared from those 21 accounts prior to June 4.

The ASC has asked all the banks involved to give the committee further details of the 21 accounts.

The ASC will summon Khunying Potjaman to clarify the Shin Corp share deals today .

Viroj Laohaphan, an ASC member, said Mr Thaksin's legal adviser Noppadon Pattama will appeal against the assets freeze next Monday .

Mr Viroj, who heads a sub-panel scrutinising the Shin Corp share transactions between Ample Rich Investment Co and Panthongtae and Pinthongta Shinawatra and their alleged tax evasion, said the ASC has agreed to adjust down the tax liability from the share transactions of Ample Rich, after the sub-panel detected errors in the earlier calculation.

Initially, on April 23, the ASC ordered Ample Rich to pay 21.7 billion baht in income tax. But in the next round on July 7, it will come to 20.9 billion baht.

]Bangkok Post June 19, 2007

[KoratCat]

Thaksin's wife skips meeting with ASC

(BangkokPost.com) - The wife of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra skipped her scheduled testimony at the Assets Scrutiny Committee on the Shin Corp share sales again on Tuesday, saying she was sick.

It was the third time that Potjaman Shinawatra had postponed her meetings with the ASC, the last one being on June 6, when she said she had important business meeting to attend abroad.

Somporn Pongsuwan, her lawyer, came to meet with the subcommittee of the ASC, chaired by Viroj Laohaphan at around 10am, the time that the ASC ordered Khunying Potjaman to testify.

Mr Somporn said he came to postpone Khunying Potjaman's meeting with the ASC, from today to July 19, which is a month from now. He claimed she suffers heart problems and is currently treated at a hospital in Singapore.

The ASC asked the lawyer to present medical certificate and diagnosis report of her illness within seven days.

"The ASC will then decide whether she can postpone the testimony," said ASC spokesman Sak Korsaengruang.

Khunying Potjaman reportedly flew to Singapore with her two children last weekend. It was unclear when she will be back.

]Bangkok Post June 19, 2007

Hope she can pay her bills there; Singapore is said to be even more costly than New York.

Or did she run