Thaksin given 3-year imprisonment for Exim Bank’s loan to Myanmar

[OnTheRun]

5 hours ago, Sticky Wicket said:

It makes me laugh when people post that he should come back and face the music, do a few years in jail etc etc.

If he came back and was put in jail he would be dead inside 24 hours. 

 

That's almost 24 hours longer than the 5,000 or so drug dealers who were summarily executed, under his watch, got.

[Moo 2]

One thing for sure since Thaksin left the country is in a mess, the Baht is a disaster.

Pointing the finger about corruption/bribery, how much does a Rolex cost and why

a member of the Junta would need 90 of them? One only has 2 arms and 2 legs!

[robblok]

1 hour ago, candide said:

The article in Thai pbs lacks precision, as often. The part of the loan that was later used to buy Shin Corps products was 400 Million, accordind to the ASC. What was the cost of the reduced interest rate for a 400 Million loan over 3 years? 10% (40 million), 20% (80 million)?

Does it really matter again proof that Thaksin was a crook and still people seem to defend the guy. The junta is bad, Thaksin is bad too period. He pushed for the whole loan not just the part that was used for his company so you going back to 400 million is not fair. 

 

Anyway I don't care much anymore Thaksin.. junta whatever they all rob the country blind.

[candide]

8 minutes ago, robblok said:

Does it really matter again proof that Thaksin was a crook and still people seem to defend the guy. The junta is bad, Thaksin is bad too period. He pushed for the whole loan not just the part that was used for his company so you going back to 400 million is not fair. 

 

Anyway I don't care much anymore Thaksin.. junta whatever they all rob the country blind.

There was obviously a conflict of interest. However, the whole loan in itself is not particularly illegal. Plenty of countries offer loans at reduced rates to push sales by their industry. The moral aspect can be discussed (lending to a Junta), of course.

[robblok]

3 minutes ago, candide said:

There was obviously a conflict of interest. However, the whole loan in itself is not particularly illegal. Plenty of countries offer loans at reduced rates to push sales by their industry. The moral aspect can be discussed (lending to a Junta), of course.

Obvious conflict of interest to put it mildly come one be a man and call him what he is a corrupt crook. Anyway now we got a junta who is probably corrupt too. They should all be punished at least Thaksin got punished (ok evaded it) junta will probably never answer for their corruption unfortunately. But that doe snot make Thaksins actions any better.

 

Thailand is a mess and until people really start to get sentenced for corruption nothing will change.

[mike324]

19 minutes ago, robblok said:

Obvious conflict of interest to put it mildly come one be a man and call him what he is a corrupt crook. Anyway now we got a junta who is probably corrupt too. They should all be punished at least Thaksin got punished (ok evaded it) junta will probably never answer for their corruption unfortunately. But that doe snot make Thaksins actions any better.

 

Thailand is a mess and until people really start to get sentenced for corruption nothing will change.

I agree, but the junta is not really in the drivers seat anymore. Its just another puppet.

[Baerboxer]

9 hours ago, perthuniversity said:

i'll admit i'm biased, but I really struggle to see how most of the charges are as serious as they are making out, the exim bank is supposed to loan money so neighbouring countries can but thai goods and services

 

conflict of interest? possibly, but it's also very possible that the conflict of interest was acknowledged, disclosed, etc

 

So a PM gets a government bank to lend tax payer's money to another country, at low interest rates, so the other country can buy goods and services from his family business, and you think there might have been a conflict of interest? 

 

555! Your're having a laugh! It's corruption. About a good an example as you can get. 

 

Try reading about the Krungthai Bank fraud too. You might think there was a slight possibility of conflict of interest there too!

[Baerboxer]

35 minutes ago, candide said:

There was obviously a conflict of interest. However, the whole loan in itself is not particularly illegal. Plenty of countries offer loans at reduced rates to push sales by their industry. The moral aspect can be discussed (lending to a Junta), of course.

 

You don't think the bit about them having to buy goods and services from the Shin family business might just be a tad conflict??

 

It stinks. Like so many other frauds this man and his family have been involved with. They have no morals.

 

His he the only one at it, nope. Does that make his crimes less or mean he should be excused, nope.

[Redline]

He should be friends with Hillary ????

[Chris Lawrence]

2 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

You don't think the bit about them having to buy goods and services from the Shin family business might just be a tad conflict??

 

It stinks. Like so many other frauds this man and his family have been involved with. They have no morals.

 

His he the only one at it, nope. Does that make his crimes less or mean he should be excused, nope.

One word BB; 'scanners'. who signed off on them again?

 

Sorry BB, but I think we both agree, those shooting their mouths off have a lot to answer for their management of the economy.

[scorecard]

9 hours ago, mike324 said:

The loan required Myanmar to buy services from Shin Satellite a subsidiary of Shin Corp, which is own by his family. 

 

There are numerous cases where Thaksin use his position to get ministries to buy stuff from  company his family owns, other examples include police force buying computers.

Abuse of authority also comes to mind.

[scorecard]

6 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

You don't think the bit about them having to buy goods and services from the Shin family business might just be a tad conflict??

 

It stinks. Like so many other frauds this man and his family have been involved with. They have no morals.

 

His he the only one at it, nope. Does that make his crimes less or mean he should be excused, nope.

Agree.

 

By the way regarding "...Like so many other frauds this man and his family have been involved with ...", anybody noticed anything in the news services recently about the location of his big sister who disappeared from Thailand 3 or 4 months ago?

 

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed. 

[Donutz]

15 hours ago, Oziex1 said:

Thaksin, still in their hearts and minds. 

I think some Khon Dee / Salim havw him on their mind on a daily basis. Time to move on. 

 

This ruling seems fair, though I did not dive into it too much. I don't care much about him. Clearly he was a crooked, undemocratic person who did all sorts of wrongs.  So that he should be in jail for various things seems rather obvious.

 

Same goes for many other people high up the tree: various prime ministers, ministers,  generals etc. Some would even face capital punishment (declaring national martial law and a coup by an army general are things that under the constitution would mean life in prison or death). But sadly most of these perbs will never gave to answer a unbiased, neutral judge,  let alone fear any punishment.

 

If all these people could be removed and punished, Thailand could start with a clean slate.

[chama]

17 hours ago, phutoie2 said:

yes , not a long read.  It was on the fiction shelf at Asia Books.

I found a copy in the humor titles as well. 

[daveAustin]

Nice timing. Bent indeed, but then who ain't? Not my favourite martian by any stretch. All I know is the country was a lot more desirable and happy-go-lucky when he was mincing around. Sad thoughts, but I don't like what I see when I muse on the future of Thailand nowadays.

[josephbloggs]

10 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Nice timing. Bent indeed, but then who ain't? Not my favourite martian by any stretch. All I know is the country was a lot more desirable and happy-go-lucky when he was mincing around. Sad thoughts, but I don't like what I see when I muse on the future of Thailand nowadays.

I think that the mists of time are playing tricks with your memory.  Thailand was a much more desirable and happy-go-lucky before him.

 

Under Thaksin:

 

War on drugs (thousands of extra judicial murders)

Purachai!!  Midnight / 1am closing.  Alcohol sales banned from 2pm to 5pm, midnight to 11am.

 

Crackdown on fun.

[Prairieboy]

On 4/24/2019 at 4:35 AM, webfact said:

three years in prison without suspension

I presume this will be served in absentia?

 

[Jip99]

14 minutes ago, Prairieboy said:

I presume this will be served in absentia?

 

 

 

I have a 100 Baht that says the absconder will not return to jail time.

[jayboy]

I'm struggling to understand what precise offence Thaksin is meant to have committed here. I'm pretty sure he has committed an offence but am not sure precisely what it is.

 

It seems many do not understand that the whole purpose of EXIM Bank is to provide loans and/or credits for foreign purchases of Thai goods and services.

 

Thaksin's companies had telecoms hardware to export to neighbouring countries. Nothing wrong with that, in fact great.

 

So the questions (non exhaustive list) I would like to know the answers to are:

 

1. Had the Board of Directors at Exim considered the matter and made a recommendation. Did Thaksin push the proposal or overrule the recommendation?

 

2. Were there other Thai companies that could provide the same items at the right price/quality. If so, did they make a bid?

 

3.Difficult to prove but was there any informal pressure on EXIM to make the "right" decision?

 

4. What exactly was Thaksin's role? Just a sign-off or something more?

 

The whole problem seems likely to be that there was never any intention on Thaksin's part to avoid conflicts of interest. If he had instigated at the beginning of his premiership some clear rules given his financial and industrial interests (don't laugh, I'm just hypothesizing ) it seems this Burmese transaction could have been perfectly okay. The lesson seems to be that if you have to have a tycoon in charge there should the equivalent of blind trust arrangements in place to ensure he is out of the loop when decisions are taken by the government on matters affecting PM's personal financial interests. That's never going to work in Thailand so perhaps the lesson is just - don't elect Sino Thai tycoons to political office.

 

[Eric Loh]

Just can't get that man off the news. The poll still like to compare him with Prayut like the recent poll of popularity and credibility. Thaksin still ahead of Prayut. Infuriated the PM wannabe when asked by reporter. Ouch!

[NanLaew]

8 hours ago, jayboy said:

That's never going to work in Thailand so perhaps the lesson is just - don't elect Sino Thai tycoons to political office.

I think it needs to be , "Don't directly elect Sino-Thai tycoons to political office". Their existing command and control mechanisms are all working perfectly as their bank accounts can attest.