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Desperate Thaksin may go for broke

By Political Desk
The Nation
Published on November 23, 2009

With his assets seizure trial nearing its end, Thaksin Shinawatra may find himself a drowning man clutching desperately at every last straw.

A judgement against him will certainly quash the pardon-Thaksin petition that his supporters submitted in September, shutting down all avenues for him to escape legal punishment.
This has prompted speculation, or fears to be exact, that his red-shirted supporters could run amok before the court is scheduled to hand down the ruling.

Thaksin needs to protect his Bt76 billion assets, perhaps his last resources as far as the public knows, which have been frozen at the request of the Assets Examination Committee. As the court is expected to read its verdict in mid-December at the earliest, if Thaksin were to have any chance of survival he would need the royal pardon before then. But the pardon seems to be drifting in a long process.
If the fugitive ex-premier is found guilty in his Bt76-billion assets case, which is now before the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders, his chances of staging a comeback to politics would be zero. The curtain would be drawn on him. The court won't allow an appeal unless the defendant can produce new evidence. A portion or even all of his assets will be confiscated depending on the court verdict.

Thaksin will also later face criminal charges for malfeasance and dereliction of duty in violation of Article 157. As he violated the law on many counts he may end up getting sentenced to dozens of years in prison.
On the other hand, if Thaksin is found not guilty in the assets case he may feel relieved. He will have only the two-year jail term for the Ratchadaphisek land purchase to serve. His other cases are still just in court.
Yellow-shirted protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul also once said he would not mind if Thaksin was granted a pardon after he surrendered and came back to Thailand.

As nobody, even the fugitive ex-premier, knows how the assets decision will turn out, Thaksin has no choice but to topple the Democrat-led government by all means before the court concludes the case to pave the way for his return.
Thaksin maybe realises that the court might reach a finding sooner rather than later, so he has no time to prolong his battle. He has to end the game sooner rather than later. After using neighbouring country Cambodia to attack Thailand, leading to a dispute between the two countries, the fugitive ex-premier is now blowing the whistle to his supporters to oust the government. That's why his red-shirted supporters moved their rally up.

The red shirts will now kick off their "showdown rally" on Saturday - a day earlier than planned - in a bid to "bring down" the government as soon as possible. The red-shirt leaders expect one million people to join the protest. They would disperse temporarily on December 2 to make way for ceremonies to mark His Majesty the King's birthday on December 5, and re-gather after that.
One week before the rally, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva got death threats from community radio stations in Chiang Mai, which is Thaksin's political base. Abhisit had scheduled to visit the province next Sunday.

During the Songkran mayhem, the premier almost lost his life when his car was attacked by red-shirted people at the Interior Ministry. Some fear that Thaksin's new battle may repeat history.
It would be no surprise if Thaksin sets off on a "kamikaze" mission and takes the country hostage as he has always done - putting his personal interest before the country's.

Butterfly

unbelievable, so it's clear now that the red shirt protest is more and more about Thaksin and Thaksin alone, not democracy.

The good news is that he has a job waiting in Cambodia, I am sure he will get all the good deals with his newly found friend.

Of course, some would argue that Cambodia is a real democracy, and that the Cambodian PM was at least elected democratically

Panda

"As nobody, even the fugitive ex-premier, knows how the assets decision will turn out,"

BKKBoet

WEB OF INTRIGUE


By The Nation
Published on November 23, 2009



Prosecution reveals how the Shinawatras hid and multiplied their assets while in power



Would you cheat your son out of Bt3 billion? That could happen if your assistant was in a hurry to cover up something very important to you.
That was what the prosecution in the Bt76-billion asset seizure case against ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra told the Supreme Court last week.

The story was part of the prosecution's detailed argument that Thaksin and his ex-wife, Pojaman na Pombejra, did own altogether 46.87 per cent of Shin Corp shares worth more than Bt69 billion while the former held the country's highest office from 2001-2006.

The alleged cover-up of massive wealth was in blatant violation of Article 100(3) of the National Counter-Corruption Commission Act of 1999, which bars public office holders and their spouses from owning shares in companies holding state concessions.

In this case, Shin Corp was the holding company for Advanced Info Service (AIS) and Shin Satellite, which enjoyed government concessions for lucrative cellular and satellite service businesses.

Back in 2000, Thaksin and Pojaman were busy preparing to hide their multibillion-baht assets ahead of the general election.

After winning the election by a landslide, they could have sold off the assets or put them under a "blind" trust to comply with the law, but these options were never used.

Instead, a highly complex web of offshore and onshore entities and nominees was used to conceal their tremendous wealth.

Behind the scenes, the motives were multifaceted, ranging from tax avoidance to election campaign financing and other political reasons.

The entire process of concealing such massive wealth was unprecedented in Thai history. So was the subsequent government policies and measures used to increase the value of the holdings over a period of more than five years.

Kaewsan Atibhodi, a member of the now-defunct Assets Examination Committee, which investigated this and other Thaksin cases, said the overall process of asset concealment and "policy corruption" was just intriguing.

As a key prosecution witness in the Bt76-billion asset seizure case pending in the Supreme Court, Kaewsan last week testified that the whole Bt76 billion fortune should be devolved to the state.

"First of all, Thaksin hid his vast shareholdings even after being elected the prime minister, so he intentionally violated Article 100(3) of the NCCC law.

"Secondly, as prime minister, he introduced measures and policies that benefited Shin Corp so he violated Article 100(1) of the NCCC law.

"Therefore, Thaksin abused his office to gain his wealth, resulting in a loss to the state of more than Bt100 billion. Since he and his former wife controlled as much as 46.87 per cent of Shin Corp, the benefits from such a large shareholding were therefore ill-gotten and should be forfeited."

Yet, the prosecution would have to convince the court that Thaksin and Pojaman did really conceal their wealth while the former was in office - a key point consistently countered and dismissed by the defence lawyers.

Given that the burden of proof rests with the accused in corruption and related cases, the prosecution concluded that they were not satisfied with evidence presented by the defence, which argued that all Shin Corp shares were "sold" to the couple's children and relatives before Thaksin assumed the premiership.

"This argument was not convincing because the documentation, such as notices of share transfers, promissory notes, annual reports of Ample Rich Co (one of the offshore nominees) could have been tampered with or backdated to alter the whole story," Kaewsan said.

"However, we're not given any hard evidence that couldn't be meddled with, such as share depositories or transaction records that Thaksin could have asked from UBS Bank (Singapore branch) to prove that his son, Panthongtae, was the authorised owner of those shares, not just his father's nominee."

Pojaman testified before the court that Panthongtae earlier paid her Bt4.5 billion in promissory notes for a total of 450 million shares of TMB Bank that were sold to her son.

Her testimony raised even more questions than answers on the contentious point of whether the son and other Shinawatra children as well as relatives were genuine buyers of Thaksin and Pojaman's shares or just their nominees.

The facts show that if the Bt4.5 billion payment by Panthongtae to her mother for the TMB shares was real as claimed by Pojaman, the mother would have probably conned her son out of as much as Bt3 billion in just one go.

Why? The entire 450 million shares of TMB Bank as cited by Pojaman included 300 million shares that Pojaman got for free via the exercise of 300 million warrants, so the actual cost of all 450 million TMB shares was just Bt1.5 billion, not the hugely-inflated Bt4.5 billion.

Any decent mother wouldn't have done this to her beloved children. In other words, it simply defies conventional wisdom.

So what could have happened? Besides Pojaman's aides, who prepared the document for court evidence, no one else would have a clear idea of what went wrong, but the glitch clearly undermines the defence's credibility as far as true ownership of all of the Thaksin-Pojaman assets is concerned.

In fact, this is one of the most fundamental points in the prosecution's argument for taking permanent possession of the Bt76 billion.

The prosecution firmly believes that Thaksin covered up his wealth illegally and then launched policies and measures that enormously benefited his financial interests over his years in office before selling those assets to Temasek Holding of Singapore at a huge gain in 2006.

Company above state

Five policies and measures |that benefited Shin Corp:

- Reduction in the concession fee of AIS from 25 per cent to 20 per cent of its revenue, resulting in state-owned TOT losing Bt70 billion.

- Amending AIS's contracts with TOT and state-owned CAT to share roaming charges resulting in a combined loss of Bt21.7 billion for the state.

- Enacting legislation to convert concession fees into excise tax on telecom services in bid to keep AIS's market lead at the expense of competitors.

- Approving Shin Sat's IP Star satellite project so that it did not have to put into orbit a Bt4-billion Thaicom 4 satellite, resulting in a Bt20-billion loss in state benefits.

- Approving a Bt1-billion increase in Exim Bank loan for Burma from Bt3 billion to Bt4 billion, so the extra Bt1 billion could be used to buy satellite services from Shin Sat.

DaffyDuck

Shucks - I predict 'curtains' for Thaksin.

They are not going to muster one million for a rallye, even if Thaksin spends the last of his millions.

Mr R Sole

Brave or madness, I can't decide..maybe he likes rotten fruit and 'veg'!!

That's something I never understood about that day..any other country in the world would've had much better security for a PM on such a turbulent day??? they really were crap...I was expecting shootings by the BIB and PM's security forces...

Best idea so far, if it ever ended up going into the state that would be even nicer...better schools and hospital...not a better Mercedes

Greedy little git wants it all


That came back to bite him didn't it...silly little boy.


Just disgusting..Take the feckers cash and put it to good use...now that's a vote winner.

StrontiumDog

Great posts. Wont make a difference to the misinformed, manipulated masses who mindlessly support him though.

BKKBoet

My point has always been that the whole Red Shirt movement has got nothing to do with a persuit for democracy but was set up and funded to persure the personal aims of one man. I just feel sorry for the average Thai's who misguidely bought into it and put their lives on the line for it.

Thailand needs a genuine deomocratic movement that grows by itself and is self sustaining.

EmperorTud

Your 'predictions' usually turn out to be completely wrong, such as predicting no more than 5,000 turning out for a red shirt rally at Rajamangala when the actual number turned out to be over 60,000.

As to the Nation articles posted on this thread, no-one is still taking this joke of a newspaper seriously are they?

As to the allegations against Thaksin much the same has been alleged of the CPB over the years but no-one is going out of their way to highlight that, are they?

What's good for the goose, after all...

__________________
Mortals you defy the Gods, I sentence you to travel among unknown stars, until you find the Kingdom of Hades, your bodies will stay as lifeless as stone.

EmperorTud

However it has morphed into a democratic movement and many people who don't support Thaksin or his party have joined because of that.

That is something this Government and its backers are doing their upmost to prevent.

The "average Thai" has been brainwashed by birth so those in control can remain in control. There's something far more sinister been at work here from the very beginning. Don't feel sorry for people that have discovered they have been lied to all their lives and have now just woken up to that fact.

BKKBoet

^^



You can shoot the messenger all you want, but the facts are the fact.

mobs00

^ If facts are facts can you cite exactly where these facts have come from? I don't mean a newspaper either. Show the sources of these facts provided by an independent body who has nothing to gain.

And if you can't then how can you believe them to be fact? Facts provided by reds or yellows or the government are going to be skewed and manipulated to fit their agendas.

EmperorTud

You'd be foolish to take anything at face value from the Nation.

One fact is abundantly clear though, the Nation is nothing but a mouthpiece for the elite-led Democrat government and is rabidly anti-Thaksin.

Butterfly

then they are really stupid because they are not going to get anything out of this, certainly not democracy. Actually your claim is probably false, anyone serious about Democracy wouldn't associate with the reds.

Panda

One has to wonder why the ruling class puppet government even bothers to put this through the courts when the outcome is already decided. The Thai courts are as corrupt as the present government and certainly just another arm of the ruling class oligarchy. Just another political show trial.

Butterfly

and you seriously think that they are not been lied to with the red shirt movement

they are only waking up into a second level of the matrix, there is absolutely no escape

EmperorTud

Glad you admit the majority are not being paid or forced to attend.

Strawman argument. I didn't say anything of the sort.

Da Torpedo seems serious, as does Giles Ungkaporn. Both have been made scapegoats for speaking their beliefs. Need I go on?

wefearourdespot

You are right, anyone serious about democracy would never ask for elections

Butterfly

link ? where did I say it was the majority ? it's obvious that the majority are being paid or just supporting one man, not democracy, a minority might. Stop overinterpretating things I didn't say to re-enforce your arguments, that's quite lame and very dishonest.

StrontiumDog

Yes, I still remember their special "red power" webpage, when the Victory Monument protest took place. I recall thinking at the time how very anti-red shirt that was...you know, the pictures of smiling protesters, the banners, the photos of the sea of red shirts...very anti-red shirt/Thaksin...

So, what is it that you disagree with this time...

1. Desperate Thaksin may go for broke

Or

2. WEB OF INTRIGUE

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Eat plutonium death, mutant scum...