Billions spirited out by Thaksin, Korn alleges

From The Nation today.

Democrat Party deputy secretary-general Korn Chati-kavanij said yesterday he believed the Bt20 billion "missing" from the Shinawatra family's bank accounts had been taken out of the country.

Korn said he had checked with some commercial banks and found there were many ways to electronically transfer Bt2 billion out of the country without having to seek permission from the Bank of Thailand.

"The central bank has to find out where the Bt20 billion is," said Korn, who was a senior financial executive before entering politics.

He said commercial banks had told him that a transfer of no more than US$50 million (Bt1.73 billion) could be done without permission from the central bank.

Korn said he was not convinced that the Bt20 billion was used to invest in companies belonging to the Shina-watra family, as claimed by Noppadon Pattama, legal adviser to ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. These companies have small registered capital and do not operate any business, he said.

"It is unreasonable because these companies belong to the Shinawatra family. It is a false claim to avoid having Bt20

billion frozen by the Assets Examination Committee (AEC). The authorities have to freeze the money in these companies if they really used it to buy shares or increase capital," Korn said.

Bank of Thailand Governor Tarisa Watanagase had earlier said that she believed the Bt20 billion was still in the country because the central bank had not been asked to approve the transactions.

The AEC last week ordered a freeze on bank accounts of Thaksin and his family members worth Bt52.8 billion, citing sufficient evidence in its investigations into corruption allegations against him and the fact that Bt20 billion had been withdrawn from the accounts. The AEC said later that another Bt8 billion was unaccounted for from the bank accounts.

Noppadon later explained that all the Bt23.4 billion, and not Bt28 billion as reported by the AEC, had been accounted for. He said that Bt16.4 billion had been used to buy stocks in real-estate firms and the remaining Bt7 billion was deposited in bank accounts of Thaksin's children Panthongtae and Pinthongta.

In a related development, the AEC will investigate the seven companies in which Thaksin claimed to have invested Bt20 billion in order to increase the companies' capital and diversify risk, a source said yesterday.

AEC officials suspect irregularities, especially as the companies have the same address and Thaksin is said to be investing in real-estate firms even though the sector is suffering from a downturn.

They will investigate who are the owners of the seven companies, if the companies are active, whether the owners know that Thaksin has invested in their companies and what status Thaksin has in these companies.

A panel headed by Khunying Jaruvan Maintaka is investigating the companies.

Thaksin had already said that the Shin Corp shares sale was his son's decision.

"If we find that Thaksin is involved in the decision to put this money into these companies or increase their capital, he could be violating anti-graft laws," the source said.

Noppadon said yesterday he would submit a complaint with the AEC to revoke the order to freeze Thaksin's assets by this Friday. He said the move had been delayed because he needed to get power of attorney from Thaksin, who is still abroad.