Court hands down heavy jail terms for ex-officials of KMIT Lat Krabang on corruption charges

[webfact]

Court hands down heavy jail terms for ex-officials of KMIT Lat Krabang on corruption charges

 

 

 

In a record marathon verdict reading which took 15 hours from 8 am on Tuesday until 1 am today with lunch and dinner breaks, the Min Buri provincial court acquitted the former rector of King Mongkut Institute of Technology, Lat Krabang campus, but sentenced 11 others to jail terms from over four to over 200 years in prison on corruption charges involving 689 million baht of the institute’s fund.

 

Altogether 14 defendants, including a former manager of Siam Commercial Bank’s Big C Suvinthawong branch and senior officials of the institute, were indicted with multiple charges ranging from embezzlement, money laundering, malfeasance in office to falsifying official documents.

 

Thawil Pungma, former rector of the institute and two other officials were found not guilty and acquitted by the court.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/court-hands-down-heavy-jail-terms-for-ex-officials-of-kmit-lat-krabang-on-corruption-charges/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2018-12-26

[nev]

It's a start and good to see.

[Vacuum]

The love of money.....

[HalfLight]

Severe jail terms eh? Right you are.

 

Suppose it had been a different bank? With different shareholders...

 

 

[mikebell]

They deserve it - they charged me 20 baht to withdraw money from my BKK Bank account.

[dcnx]

Are they already in jail or were they released to return to jail at a later date? If released... well, we know how this plays out.

[HalfLight]

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

They deserve it - they charged me 20 baht to withdraw money from my BKK Bank account.

 

Enough is never enough for the movers and shakers, or the dealers and stealers. One possibility is that they know the trough is going to get smaller and are determined to make more hay while the sun is shining - out of that nice Mr Prayuth.

[holy cow cm]

Now how can the Thai people just get Prawit convicted and his cohort protecting him.

[ChipButty]

Should do what China does a bullet in the back off the head

[lungbing]

And then charge the family for the cost of the bullet.

[Eric Loh]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

sentenced 11 others to jail terms from over four to over 200 years in prison on corruption charges involving 689 million baht of the institute’s fund.

Trying to extrapolate just how many years Suthep may serve jail time in the 6.67 B police station case. Most probably nothing. Pays to be aligned with the “right” political side. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The BKK Post article says all the accused defendants were in court for the reading of the verdict, but makes no mention of what happened to them post-conviction.

 

However, it also mentions that the acquitted rector was released on 8 million baht bail and ordered not to leave the country without permission, because he's apparently facing a separate set of charges in the case with the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct.

 

[Kieran00001]

1 hour ago, ChipButty said:

Should do what China does a bullet in the back off the head

 

Normally in China it is lethal injection, some provinces do still use a firing squad for some violent crimes but its not common and never a bullet in the back of the head.

[Kieran00001]

3 hours ago, dcnx said:

Are they already in jail or were they released to return to jail at a later date? If released... well, we know how this plays out.

 

Five of them had been in Minburi jail since last November, i expect they are back there now, the others who knows, sometimes they are bailed until their appeal date, that's generally when it all goes wrong.

[webfact]

Record sentences in record-breaking court verdict on Bt1 bn KMITL embezzlement case

By THE NATION

 

 

A FORMER bank manager and a university finance chief were each sentenced to more than 190 years in prison yesterday in a Bt1-billion embezzlement and money-laundering case involving King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL).

 

In a marathon 15-hour verdict reading, Min Buri Provincial Court found Siam Commercial Bank (SCB)’s former branch manager Songklod Sriprasong, 43; KMITL’s finance department director Amporn Noiprasit, 59; and nine others guilty of the charges.

 

Thawil Puengma

 

Three other defendants in the case – including the university’s former rector Thawil Puengma – were acquitted.

Public prosecutors pressed charges against the 14, accusing them of theft, forging and using official documents, embezzlement or aiding in embezzlement, malfeasance and money laundering. The alleged offences took place between 2012 and 2014.

 

The 14 defendants were accused of embezzling Bt689 million from KMITL and laundering Bt303 million – charges that they all denied.

 

The defendants were mainly executives of the bank or senior officials of the university at the time the alleged wrongdoings were committed. 

 

The court reduced the jail term by a quarter of the original sentence to all those convicted because their testimonies were considered “beneficial to the case’s trial”.

 

Yesterday, Amporn was sentenced to 203 years in jail, but the court reduced the term to 152 years and three months. The court also ordered her to compensate KMITL for Bt80 million and pay back Bt608.6 million to SCB – both co-plaintiffs seeking damages.

 

Songklod originally got 193 years and eight months in jail before the court cut it down to 145 years and three months. Also, he was ordered to compensate KMITL for Bt80 million and pay back Bt636.8 million to the bank.

 

However, the maximum legal imprisonment term that can be served by the main convicts is 50 years.

 

The nine other convicted defendants face jail terms ranging from four years and six months to 24 years and nine months after reduced penalties. 

 

KMITL’s former vice rector Sappasit Limnorarat, 54, received a jail term of 33 years, which was later reduced to 24 years and nine months.

 

The court began delivering its 572-page ruling at 8am on Tuesday and completed the verdict reading at 1am yesterday – a new record.

 

Twelve judges took turns in reading the verdict, with two one-hour breaks for lunch and dinner.

 

Following his acquittal, Thawil, 64, thanked the court for ensuring him “justice”. Speaking to the media with a smiling face, the former KMITL rector said he had not committed any of the alleged wrongdoings.

 

He said that he was prepared to fight the case if public prosecutors decided to appeal yesterday’s court ruling.

 

Regarding a separate case to be heard at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases, the ex-rector said that he was not concerned as “I did nothing wrong”.

 

Family members of eight of the 11 convicted defendants applied for a temporary release.

 

Thawil and Sappasit were granted temporary release on bail of Bt8 million each, on condition that they do not leave the country without the Court’s permission.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30361196

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-12-27

[marko kok prong]

Wow,i bet they let out a sigh of relief when the sentences were reduced from 203 years to 152 and 193 years to 145 years.

[roquefort]

Record breaking headline then for the Nation.

Glad to see the sentence was reduced to 152 years, 203 years seems a bit harsh.

[hotchilli]

But we were assured Thais don't scam Thais ???

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, roquefort said:

Record breaking headline then for the Nation.

Glad to see the sentence was reduced to 152 years, 203 years seems a bit harsh.

The sentencing is a Public Relations optic and has no judicial relevance.

"the maximum legal imprisonment term that can be served by the main convicts is 50 years."

The Thai courts does the same 100+ year sentencing with lese majestic convictions.

A court that cites a sentence that violates the maximum legal sentences is interjecting personal (if not political) opinion into the court's judgement.

 

[topt]

54 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

A court that cites a sentence that violates the maximum legal sentences is interjecting personal (if not political) opinion into the court's judgement.

I personally think these 100 plus year sentences are a nonsense and I have read of many over the years for all sorts of "crimes". 

However could it be that, as in the west, there exists some mechanism that says they will only serve some sort of %age of the original sentence based on behavior etc. IE if they only gave them 50 years they could be out in 20 or whatever? 

[Oziex1]

It must have been a great relief for Amporn to have his sentence reduced from 203 to 152 years.

[Dogmatix]

Meanwhile the mad abbot of Wat Thammakai, who was accused of laundering a significant portion of the theft is still on the run and the funds laundered by the temple have not been recovered. Interesting that The Nation and other local media have dropped this aspect of the case from their reporting.

[Dogmatix]

18 hours ago, topt said:

I personally think these 100 plus year sentences are a nonsense and I have read of many over the years for all sorts of "crimes". 

However could it be that, as in the west, there exists some mechanism that says they will only serve some sort of %age of the original sentence based on behavior etc. IE if they only gave them 50 years they could be out in 20 or whatever? 

 

Indeed you are right. The Criminal Code provides for the serving of consecutive sentences for multiple offenses but with specific limitations on the combined total. Where the maximum sentence handed down for any of the offenses is over 10 years, as in these cases, the  combined sentences are automatically commuted to 50 years. Where the maximum sentence is not more than 3 years they are commuted to 10 years. Sentences of more than 3 years but less than 10 are commuted to 20 years. 

 

The convicts will be eligible for remission of sentences, parole and Royal pardons, based on the 50 year maximum combined sentences, not the nonsensical ones. In fact they are better off getting sentenced to hundreds of years in prison than getting a single life sentence, as the life sentence would have to be commuted to 50 years before any further remissions could be applied, whereas they will get that automatically.

 

It is rather shameful of The Nation not to inform its readers how these draconian sentences will actually be applied. Looks like the classic reprinting of a press release by a junior reporter with no input or supervision by the editor.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Dogmatix