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| Southeast Asia |
| Thaksin Faces Up To 15 Years In Jail |
| 2007-05-09 |
| (AKI) - The ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra faces up to 15 years in prison if the authorities manage to prove that he maintained control of the family telecoms firm Shin Corp even after he became prime minister in 2001. The Assets Examination Committee (AEC), a panel of anti-corruption experts which was instituted by the military junta after the 19 September coup, has threatened to take action against the former premier over this issue. The AEC said that the sale of Shin Corp shares could have also been a facade and that the former prime minister had actually continued to manage the operations of the conglomerate while in power, which would be against the anti-corruption legislation. The doubts expressed by the AEC – which announced that it wishes to re-open the case - is not new. Thaksin has already been accused and absolved of the same charges in the past. Although Shin Corp was listed on the stock exchange in 1992, Thaksin and his family have always maintained control over a majority of the shares. However Thaksin's wife was forced to sell her shares after the 2001 election victory, the first win by the leader of the Thai Rak Thai party. According to the laws stipulated in the 1997 constitution, the prime minister and his wife are barred from having shares in a company that has working ties with the state. His wife's shares were sold to a phantom company, Ample Rich, registered in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven, as well as to family members and household employees. Founded in 1983 by Thaksin, the Shin Corp conglomerate is the leader in the mobile phone sector of Thailand and also has interests in various other sectors including satellite technology. The collaboration with the government was one of the factors that allowed Shin Corp to expand very rapidly during the years of Thaksin's government. Thaksin's family sold their shares of Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings in a much talked about tax-free deal which was concluded in 2006. |
| Posted by:Fred |