The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions on Friday confiscated 46.3 billion baht that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his ex-wife Potjaman na Pombejra acquired from selling their shares in Shin Corporation to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
The court ruled that Thaksin had abused his power and become unusually richer while holding the post of prime minister and abused his authority to benefit his own company, Shin Corp, before selling his shareholding to Temasek.
However, the court said it would be unfair to confiscate all of the 76 billion baht in frozen assets held in local banks, as requested by the Office of the Attorney-General, because part of it was acquired before Thaksin became prime minister.
The 46.3 billion baht to be confiscated comprises 6.8 billion baht in dividends and 39.4 billion baht from the sale of Shin Corp shares to Temasek.
Immediately after the court's verdict, Thaksin told his supporters in a video link from Dubai that the verdict was unfair, politically motivated and "an international joke".
He called his supporters to continue to fight for democracy.
The nine judges on the bench of the Supreme Court's Criminial Division for Holders of Political Positions Position were: Chief Justice Somsak Netmai, Taris Kesawapitak, Pithak Kongchan, Pongthep Siripongtikanont, Adisak Timmat, ML Ritthithep Devakula, Prateep Chalermpattarakul, Kampol Poosudsawaeng, and Pairoj Wayupap.
The reading of the landmark verdict began about 1.30pm and took seven hours, finishing about 8.30pm.
The courtroom's public gallery was packed with the maximum 100 spectators allowed, including local and foreign reporters.
First of all, the court made it clear that the Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) was established under Order No 30 of the Council for Democratic Reform (CDR) - the military junta that overthrew the Thaksin Shinawatra government in the Sept 19, 2006 coup.
The ASC, therefore, had the power under the order to investigate former cabinet ministers and agencies suspected of corruption and having become unusually wealthy through graft.
The appointment of Klanarong Chanthik, Bancherd Singkhaneti and Kaewsan Atipho - who Thaksin said were his political enemies - as members of the ASC was also lawful.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which was established under Order No 19 of the CDR, was legally bound to take over the responsibility of the ASC in handling the case against Thaksin after the ASC's term expired.
The NACC also had the power to ask the Office of the Attorney General to refer the case to Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions to make a ruling on the 76-billion-baht assets seizure case against Thaksin and his family, the court said.
The court decided unanimously that Thaksin and his ex-wife Potjaman na Pombejra were the real owners of 1.4 billion or 48 per cent of the Shin Corp shares that were sold to Temasek Holdings while Thaksin was still prime minister, even though they said they had sold them to their son Panthongtae, eldest daughter Pinthongta and other relatives before Thaksin ran in the 2001 election.
Political office holders and their spouses are not allowed to hold more than 5 per cent of shares in a company which has a state concession.
The court also decided by majority vote on the following points that Thaksin had abused his authority while holding the office of prime minister for the benefit of Shin Corp:
- The conversion of concession fees into excise tax by virtue of an executive decree issued by the Thaksin administration which enabled mobile phone operators to deduct their concession fees from the excise tax to be paid by them was beneficial to Advance Information Service (AIS) and had caused the state to suffer 60 billion baht in lost revenue. The increase of the excise tax to the range of 20-50 per cent made it impossible for the new players to compete with Shin Corp's AIS..
- The change of the mobile phone contract regarding the prepaid card service between AIS and TOT Corporation under which AIS was obliged to share 20 per cent of revenue earned from prepaid card service to TOT, instead of a progressive rate of sharing from 20 to 30 per cent, benefitted AIS.
- The change of the mobile phone contract regarding roaming service between TOT and CAT Telecom on one side with Shin Corp and AIS on the other side was beneficial to AIS.
- The issuance of several mesures to boost the satellite industry was in favour of Shin Corp.
- The Thaksin administration's approval of a 4 billion baht Export-Import Bank low-interest loan to the Burmese government benefited Shin Corp and its subsidiary Thaicom.
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43Billion baht is currently the equivalent to $1,300,476,639 US
Thaksin seems to have deciphered that amount into his AIS phone company and ultimately to other asset factions he has/had via his kids names, after he changed tax laws in Thailand when he was in power as the Prime minister, as explained above.
Is this just pure deceipt and bloody mindedness, just developing advantages you can create for the benefit of your loved ones; or is it corruption at it's very best? 😀😀😀
I love the words "become unusually richer" 😉
