Thailand Aims To Seize All Thaksin Fortune

[SomTumTiger]

If by rightful owners, you mean the Thai taxpayers - I agree completely.

[boris52]

jeez i hope you two never get a job as a judge.

[Ricardo]

Hopefully the courts do the right thing and return the money or portions of the money to their rightful owners.

Yes, I agree it is very important, the judges should not bow to threats from Seh Daeng or Thaksin's relatives or the Red Shirts, justice needs to be seen to be done.

IMO the "rightful owners" are Thaksin (whatever he had when he became PM, plus reasonable growth), Pojeman or the kids (where they can prove that these really are their own assets, not just Dad's parked in their own names for a few years), and the Thai citizens/taxpayers, it should be spent on projects which are clearly beneficial to the people, not bureaucrats or politicians.

Of course that means little or none will be available to red-shirted leaders, as a 'finders-fee', unless Thaksin wishes to pay these out of his own pocket ?

Edited February 11, 2010 by Ricardo

[animatic]

Hopefully the courts do the right thing and return the money or portions of the money to their rightful owners.

Yes the faithful citizens of ALL of Thailand.

Who have been hoodwink and victumized

via successive insider deals and monopolies of the Thaksin rise to power.

Not to say others weren't doing similar,

but he did it bigger and more avariciously.

and the line in the sand needs to be drawn HERE.

No more you can get the same as Thaksin be warned.

THAT is how graft is slowed and eradicate in time.

One thief at a time, but not stopping there.

[animatic]

jeez i hope you two never get a job as a judge.

And several of us can say the same to you.

Judgment can be different than opinion. Typically so.

Some here can have strong opinions and still judge facts accurately,

others only can judge facts based on their opinions.

[tracer]

Has anyone ever worked out just how much of his fortune was gained from corruption and whether he did actually make a couple of million reasonably fairly ?

Can't see this ending well whichever way it goes.

Well according to what I was told YEARS ago by people working here for my ex-employer they should likely have gone back 24 years as at that time they were already doing some shady things with computers...

So if you want to be sure you have to check whatever he got since working for the police...whatever for us farangs its likely better not to get involved....

[Arkady]

Has anyone ever worked out just how much of his fortune was gained from corruption and whether he did actually make a couple of million reasonably fairly ?

Can't see this ending well whichever way it goes.

Well according to what I was told YEARS ago by people working here for my ex-employer they should likely have gone back 24 years as at that time they were already doing some shady things with computers...

So if you want to be sure you have to check whatever he got since working for the police...whatever for us farangs its likely better not to get involved....

If you read the Pasuk/ Baker bio of Thaksin you will get a flavour for how he became so rich so fast before entering politics but putting him on trial for that phase would probably involve also prosecuting many from the TOT and other government agencies who are still alive and politicians who are still active today. The main frame business, referred to above, which was his first successful business venture after failing at several others, was interesting too. As a junior police officer Thaksin was responsible for setting up a tender offer to supply the police with IT equipment. Having set the specs for the tender, he proceded to bid for it himself and won. While in the police he also acted as a bagman for his father and uncle when they were in politics, distributing brown envelopes to MPs to buy votes in the House, according to Baker/ Pasuk. Need to hear more?

Edited February 12, 2010 by Arkady

[scotbeve]

Hmmmmm.... I remember paying for a Dancall "block" 475MHz "mobile phone - it weighed about 2.5 kgs. Purchased in 1991, the price was equivalent to US $3,120.00. Yes, I really needed it (for those freelance offshore workers - you know what I'm talkin' about...). Sold it 2 years later for US $800......

[Samuian]

Has anyone ever worked out just how much of his fortune was gained from corruption and whether he did actually make a couple of million reasonably fairly ?

Can't see this ending well whichever way it goes.

Well according to what I was told YEARS ago by people working here for my ex-employer they should likely have gone back 24 years as at that time they were already doing some shady things with computers...

So if you want to be sure you have to check whatever he got since working for the police...whatever for us farangs its likely better not to get involved....

If you read the Pasuk/ Baker bio of Thaksin you will get a flavour for how he became so rich so fast before entering politics but putting him on trial for that phase would probably involve also prosecuting many from the TOT and other government agencies who are still alive and politicians who are still active today. The main frame business, referred to above, which was his first successful business venture after failing at several others, was interesting too. As a junior police officer Thaksin was responsible for setting up a tender offer to supply the police with IT equipment. Having set the specs for the tender, he proceded to bid for it himself and won. While in the police he also acted as a bagman for his father and uncle when they were in politics, distributing brown envelopes to MPs to buy votes in the House, according to Baker/ Pasuk. Need to hear more?

Certainly not, I feel sick already and very sorry for the people who believe/d in this man!

But another time proof of a popular slightly shortened proverb from Honore Balzac..."behind every great fortunes stays a big crime"!

"Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime

oublié, parce qu' il a été proprement fait."

English translation:

"The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account

is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly

executed."

.....

...no further comment!

[SpoliaOpima]

Many of the Thais I have spoken with used to be T supporters, but if the subject is broached now, they smile embarrassingly and try to change the subject. Then there are those, like myself (tho am not a Thai) who, from the moment I first heard about Thaksin and his political promises, knew he was crooked to the core.

I know a few Thais who were charter TRT members, even three who served in his administration. Every one of them quit the party by the end of his first term. The friend who stuck it out the longest learned pretty much all there was to learn about his financial dealings, and eventually served on the defence team that lost the court decision regarding Pojaman's land transactiopn. By the time he was finished with Col T, he was convinced the man was a megalomaniac with zero ethics.

The countrywide support for the man has waned considerably, but most especially among those who actually worked or dealt with the man, or so it seems. Just as Hitler still had a mass of adherents right up to his corporeal demise.

[thejcb]

No, it is noty, it actually makes a lot of sense !

[animatic]

The likelihood he came to be so fast, unusually wealthy as he was,

and to enter politics at the level he did and so swiftly take control,

is highly indicative of ihis assets, all or mostly, being acquired by

highly questionable means. There is enough history to show that.

And then his USE of that money/power was certainly questionable

in most cases publicly known at this time. The coup was not choice #1

to rid the country of his scourge, but something needed to be done,

and the job needs to be finished, as shown by how he has manipulated

the Red Shirts into violence.

Judgment Day is quite an appropriate phrase.

[Samuian]

The likelihood he came to be so fast, unusually wealthy as he was,

and to enter politics at the level he did and so swiftly take control,

is highly indicative of ihis assets, all or mostly, being acquired by

highly questionable means. There is enough history to show that.

And then his USE of that money/power was certainly questionable

in most cases publicly known at this time. The coup was not choice #1

to rid the country of his scourge, but something needed to be done,

and the job needs to be finished, as shown by how he has manipulated

the Red Shirts into violence.

Judgment Day is quite an appropriate phrase.

And it looks if he would only have the means, the manpower, the ones willing to go for him,

(Seah Daeng seems to be one, but obviousely not power hungry enough)

he would (let) go the "whole nine yards" for sure, all the way!

He lost it it... for some time, best of the worst examples for someone getting lost in power hunger and greed!

[golferchin76]

I figure this is just a propaganda to please the current government's supporters. I thought Taksin's money are all exported oversea via various channels which I can't even imagine his methods.

I wouldn't be surprised at the end Taksin will be just as wealthy as he was. Meaning the current gov't has no way to get to him as much as it wants.

Chin