Thailand Aims To Seize All Thaksin Fortune

[scorecard]

GOOD! How about some social programs for the Thai people? It would certainly be a shame if it was distributed amongst the corrupt. Dump some of it towards the Tsunami victims that are still suffering without medical care for lack of funds. I would love to see something done about all the crazy people that society seems to accept as normal street inhabitants. Sadly, I think the feces is going to hit the oscillating rotor, and hard. It's going get nasty, so we all have to be strong. Screw the bastard! This is good news. Other than that I have no opinion.

No. hand it to the poor people of Isaan. The tsunami "victims" are mostly from the affluent Phuket/Krabi areas. They had a good hand out already. However, they charge ridiculous prices for the foreigners there and they have always had money and never contributed anything their own people in Isaan

Don't see any purpose in discussing 'who' it should be distibuted to. The funds should simply become revenue for Thailand, same as all texes etc., and used as all other revenues are used for administration and development purposes.

[pipchatel]

greed feeding greed. How are they going to distribute the wealth between the wealthy? Poor Mr Thaksin.

Already today driving south from Chiang Rai troops more troops sand bagged gun nests?? a coup by any other name!

[givenall]

Where have you been guys? After reading all the posting I am very surprise to read some of you expected different results.

In my opinion, Thaksin has to be made of an example after all the trouble he has causes and is a very good case against him for the way he has become rich. Although he is not the only one, but he is the one causing a lot of problems for the power to be

Any way I wish to get these over as soon as possible

[ikwiljou]

So what's new. That's what prosecutors do. Why the news flash?

[britmaveric]

The Thai government is pompously declaring that they are going to seize all of Mr. Thaksin's money because he got it thorough graft. He owned a telecom giant and sold it, legally. If anything is illegal, it is probably the government's entire case against Thaksin. I am not a fan of old "square face," but he is no worse than any other highly-positioned Thai. As graft and corruption are SOP in Thailand, the government trying to seize his money is probably the purest case of irony I have seen in a long time. I will now sit back and watch the real-life Thai soap opera

Nicely put and I totally agree. :D

[Gonzo the Face]

Thaksin was a rich man even before he came into power, and the governments claim to his entire fortune is spurious indeed. I also find it a little disturbing how you all accept what should be a fair trial as a foregone conclusion and see no problem in doing so. I think you have all been in Thailand a little too long.

What do they pay ex policemen where you come from????...... Enough to parlay it to billions ?????

A very lucky man to win the national lotteries in so many countries, and so many times...

[wlcart]

A news flash saying they want to seize the funds, not that they have.

Brilliant!

I agree with this, seems to me I heard about them WANTING to seize assets a while back ago. Are news flashes like this just a way to partly bypass due process and convict the guy in the in the press? Makes me a bit confused. Does this mean his fate has been sealed?

[pagallim]

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.

From what I can make out, for the duration of his being Prime Minister, he transferred his shares in Shinawatra Holdings (primarily AIS - which he founded) to his family, because of the obvious conflict of interest whilst holding public office. That's fairly normal for any politician, from whatever country, in a similar situation.

At the time of the subsequent sale of shares to the Singapore Government investment vehicle (Temasek Holdings) for about 73 billion baht, there were many accusations and shouts of selling 'Thai National assets', which of course weren't true as he was legally selling shares in a company that he'd founded himself, and one of his principle advisors in the sale was the Siam Commercial Bank.

The most substantial effect that any adverse ruling against Thaksin in this particular case, would be (at least for me) the adverse reaction from the international business community against doing business in Thailand.

[dude007]

The Thai government is pompously declaring that they are going to seize all of Mr. Thaksin's money because he got it thorough graft. He owned a telecom giant and sold it, legally. If anything is illegal, it is probably the government's entire case against Thaksin. I am not a fan of old "square face," but he is no worse than any other highly-positioned Thai. As graft and corruption are SOP in Thailand, the government trying to seize his money is probably the purest case of irony I have seen in a long time. I will now sit back and watch the real-life Thai soap opera

Nicely put and I totally agree. :D

DISAGREE!!!

[pagallim]

The Thai government is pompously declaring that they are going to seize all of Mr. Thaksin's money because he got it thorough graft. He owned a telecom giant and sold it, legally. If anything is illegal, it is probably the government's entire case against Thaksin. I am not a fan of old "square face," but he is no worse than any other highly-positioned Thai. As graft and corruption are SOP in Thailand, the government trying to seize his money is probably the purest case of irony I have seen in a long time. I will now sit back and watch the real-life Thai soap opera

I agree. Also like the potential seizure of the land purchased (legitimately) by his wife, and from where the 2 year conflict of interest sentence for him came from, though his wife was cleared of all charges. Are they going to return the money that was paid for the land to her?

Edited February 9, 2010 by pagallim

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[basjke]

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.

From what I can make out, for the duration of his being Prime Minister, he transferred his shares in Shinawatra Holdings (primarily AIS - which he founded) to his family, because of the obvious conflict of interest whilst holding public office. That's fairly normal for any politician, from whatever country, in a similar situation.

At the time of the subsequent sale of shares to the Singapore Government investment vehicle (Temasek Holdings) for about 73 billion baht, there were many accusations and shouts of selling 'Thai National assets', which of course weren't true as he was legally selling shares in a company that he'd founded himself, and one of his principle advisors in the sale was the Siam Commercial Bank.

The most substantial effect that any adverse ruling against Thaksin in this particular case, would be (at least for me) the adverse reaction from the international business community against doing business in Thailand.

You forget that he transferred his shares to his family at an unrealistic value so they didn't have to pay taxes and that he changed the law once again 1 day prior to his sale to temasek so that he escaped taxes once again.

[scorecard]

The Thai government is pompously declaring that they are going to seize all of Mr. Thaksin's money because he got it thorough graft. He owned a telecom giant and sold it, legally. If anything is illegal, it is probably the government's entire case against Thaksin. I am not a fan of old "square face," but he is no worse than any other highly-positioned Thai. As graft and corruption are SOP in Thailand, the government trying to seize his money is probably the purest case of irony I have seen in a long time. I will now sit back and watch the real-life Thai soap opera

the man is a traitor, seize the lot and chop off his head!

QUOTE:

"He owned a telecom giant and sold it, legally."

Well maybe you'd like to consider these points:

- About two or three days before the sale he blatantly railroaded an act through parliament to reverse the laws which prohibited such sales, purely for his own purposes. You say 'legally' sorry don't agree.

Any perhaps you'd like to remember that at the time he railroaded the law change through nobody from his own party dared to object. Many knew that is was wrong and very unethical but they were terrified to say anything. The term 'abuse of power' comes to mind.

Same with the relevant bureaucrats, they were terrified of his dictator approach and didn't dare to say anything other than 'yes sir', 'how high should i jump sir'.

- He gained a telcoms license out of nowhere when such licenses were supposedly not available to private enterprise, and to top if off I can recall clearly the photos in the newspapers of squarehead accepting the documents from his friend general S, (since passed away) who was one of the nasty leaders of the violent 1992 coup.

A little ironic seeing that squarehead claims that he is anti-coup and wants the clock rolled back to 'democracy'. (But I won't go on about his statements that 'democracy is not my aim' / 'democracy is not important for Thailand' / 'democracy is not needed for Thailand'.)

- When he held a monopoly license he screwed the Thai public with exorbitant charges for many years.

[animatic]

Well that cat is officially out of the bag now.

Granted the back was clear plastic for some time now.

And the cat was well known to have a communicable disease that most didn't want to catch.

Metaphors aside,

this isn't surprising and yet this is not the courts decision,

but it is the Attorney Generals specific demands for the case.

Civil war over a civil law case is pretty low, this is the road less traveled.

But his honor is as much an issue especially if he doesn't have money...

No doubt he is preparing to go for punishing behavior in the hopes to make someone blink,

and give in, or just for pure revenge. And if we see this revenge writ large,

it will validate my opinion of how bad it would be if;

he got it back, and came home, took power, and went looking for payback....

I am sure a certain Mr. Monson is quite happy to see this come to pass,

considering how rough shod Thaksin treated him.

Edited February 9, 2010 by animatic

[jitenshaman]

The Thai government is pompously declaring that they are going to seize all of Mr. Thaksin's money because he got it thorough graft. He owned a telecom giant and sold it, legally. If anything is illegal, it is probably the government's entire case against Thaksin. I am not a fan of old "square face," but he is no worse than any other highly-positioned Thai. As graft and corruption are SOP in Thailand, the government trying to seize his money is probably the purest case of irony I have seen in a long time. I will now sit back and watch the real-life Thai soap opera

I agree. Also like the potential seizure of the land purchased (legitimately) by his wife, and from where the 2 year conflict of interest sentence for him came from, though his wife was cleared of all charges. Are they going to return the money that was paid for the land to her?

Since all was so legal, wonder why he fled the country after being found guilty....also wonder why he dissolved his marriage to try and escape more legal troubles? Why not share the fortune amongst the poor tuk tuk drivers of Phuket, only on condition that they start giving 20 baht fares for the rest of their lifetimes.

[pagallim]

Thaksin was a rich man even before he came into power, and the governments claim to his entire fortune is spurious indeed. I also find it a little disturbing how you all accept what should be a fair trial as a foregone conclusion and see no problem in doing so. I think you have all been in Thailand a little too long.

What do they pay ex policemen where you come from????...... Enough to parlay it to billions ?????

A very lucky man to win the national lotteries in so many countries, and so many times...

Do some research on the man before making these kinds of posts, and you will find where he (legitimately) got his money from. The 'old guard' Thai establishment didn't like him, because he was already immensely wealthy, and used his family in positions where he needed someone to trust, rather than accept the graft and corruption that permeates all levels of Thai society. The final straw was when he won a second election (a first for Thailand), and with an absolute majority (yet another first for Thailand), and didn't have to resort to coalitions with other parties (for which read handing out ministry's/budgets etc etc) that Thailand had before, and has yet again (witness the Public Health ministry scandal, the Bangkok bus purchase/lease shamble).

[BlueSmurf]

Thaksin was a rich man even before he came into power, and the governments claim to his entire fortune is spurious indeed. I also find it a little disturbing how you all accept what should be a fair trial as a foregone conclusion and see no problem in doing so. I think you have all been in Thailand a little too long.

Ill gotton gains while in Chiang Mai?

[animatic]

Thaksin was a rich man even before he came into power, and the governments claim to his entire fortune is spurious indeed. I also find it a little disturbing how you all accept what should be a fair trial as a foregone conclusion and see no problem in doing so. I think you have all been in Thailand a little too long.

This is not his whole fortune, he has been illegally hiding cash and property off shore for 2 decades.

He also has lost bundles on bad speculations on the markets, investments gone bad,

and of course the Manchester City footbqall team. To imagine that this money is all Thaksin

has to his name is ridiculous, and totally beyond reason. To also say he has avoided taxes for

decades shown a pattern of familial deception regarding his finances and has been caught hiding his assets,

and has shown contempt for the laws of Thailand and absconded pending conviction.

He has several other pending charges all for large ticket crimes and abuses of his position.

It is not unreasonable to thenk that the AG thinks this is the only shot to collect damages for the nation

from this serial conman and mega thief.

He has not shown good faith and trustworthiness and can't expect to be trusted in future.

[Ron]

greed feeding greed. How are they going to distribute the wealth between the wealthy? Poor Mr Thaksin.

What about visas if needed anymore or deportation of all falang and Asians? I'mean if its to be war then will have to go underground and make an International Brigade of American and British Drunks

[Nio]

The country as a whole is sick of all the protests

If you pay attention, you can see the number of reds shrinking to the point that I feel the govt is not overly concerned like they use to be

62% of a poll I just read want to see the former PM returned and do jail time

21% supported him

Those number have dropped off quite a bit

Due to the economy and pressing needs of people to survive financially, the people are concentrating on what can make things better as a whole, not on what happens to one man

I think the big event here will fizzle out, assets will all be seized and according to current reports his wealth is down to US $100,000,000 from the $4,700,000,000 he once had

If that is indeed the case his money no longer has the power to change

I believe the current govt is doing the right thing

Several big names have been arrested and charged for the first time

It is a good direction and Thailand has the potential to return to peace and prosperity like it use to be

[SiriusBlack1]

What a non-story. If they'd been able to seize Thaksin's assets it would have already happened a long, long time ago.

[britmaveric]

Recent poll conducted concluded 70% supported Mr. T and wish him to return to thailand and restore democracy. They concluded that the illegitimate government must go. Thailand loves Mr T and the reds numbers will only grow.

oh they also support more Tum Yum Stands.

[pagallim]

Thaksin was a rich man even before he came into power, and the governments claim to his entire fortune is spurious indeed. I also find it a little disturbing how you all accept what should be a fair trial as a foregone conclusion and see no problem in doing so. I think you have all been in Thailand a little too long.

This is not his whole fortune, he has been illegally hiding cash and property off shore for 2 decades.

He also has lost bundles on bad speculations on the markets, investments gone bad,

and of course the Manchester City footbqall team. To imagine that this money is all Thaksin

has to his name is ridiculous, and totally beyond reason. To also say he has avoided taxes for

decades shown a pattern of familial deception regarding his finances and has been caught hiding his assets,

and has shown contempt for the laws of Thailand and absconded pending conviction.

He has several other pending charges all for large ticket crimes and abuses of his position.

It is not unreasonable to thenk that the AG thinks this is the only shot to collect damages for the nation

from this serial conman and mega thief.

He has not shown good faith and trustworthiness and can't expect to be trusted in future.

Sorry, what are these other pending charges?

I agree though, if any or all of these charges(?) can be proven through proper procedure, a court of law, and not a politically motivated kangaroo court circus that we're witnessing at the moment. Problem is that he was seemingly legitimate (though with questionable ethics) in what he did, and hence the lack of charges. A case in point was his conviction, which was totally wrong as the Supreme Court ruled on two previous occasions that the FIDF (the body which sold the land through auction) was independent of the Government, and hence Thaksin should not have been convicted of signing as approver to his wife's legitimate purchase. Don't forget, he didn't purchase the land, his wife did, but there is a requirement in Thailand that a husband must sign consent for his wife to do so.

Edited February 9, 2010 by pagallim

[Robbie Dye]

Still a milseading headline I feel, made me think they had seized it already and I was off out to buy a tin hat and 2nd hand Uzzi

[crocodilexp]

It would certainly be a shame if it was distributed amongst the corrupt.

"It will certainly be a shame when it is distributed amongst the corrupt."

There, I fixed it for you.

[animatic]

Thaksin was a rich man even before he came into power, and the governments claim to his entire fortune is spurious indeed. I also find it a little disturbing how you all accept what should be a fair trial as a foregone conclusion and see no problem in doing so. I think you have all been in Thailand a little too long.

Ill gotton gains while in Chiang Mai?

Seem you haven't spent enough time here...

Many found it profoundly disturbing that Thaksin got away with the 2001 decision.

And it's obvious he had much money offshore, and that is illegal

and reason enough to take what is here, since it is accessible.

Let him then prove how he got it.

It is being looked at like USA RICCO laws.

[Paul123456]

Excellent.

I hope all corrupt politicians around the world get the same treatment

[Fatboysrule]

Why do you waste our time with a sensational news flash containing nothing new? This is old news. Was there nothing sensational in the news today that your enthusiastic readers could be negative and cynical about?

[thaicraw]

The Thai government is pompously declaring that they are going to seize all of Mr. Thaksin's money because he got it thorough graft. He owned a telecom giant and sold it, legally. If anything is illegal, it is probably the government's entire case against Thaksin. I am not a fan of old "square face," but he is no worse than any other highly-positioned Thai. As graft and corruption are SOP in Thailand, the government trying to seize his money is probably the purest case of irony I have seen in a long time. I will now sit back and watch the real-life Thai soap opera

Nicely put and I totally agree.

Agree as well, the entire government institution from the top all the way down to the bottom is as corrupt as I have ever seen in any country (blatantly so)

It is purely Ironic and a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Its as basic as he has money and they want it, and to those of you who think for a second that a single stang will EVER go in the pocket of the poor you are so clueless it borders on blind ignorance.

The rich will get richer, whilst the poor will get poorer

Edited February 9, 2010 by thaicraw
wrong html code cleaned out//WF

[iforget]

No. hand it to the poor people of Isaan. The tsunami "victims" are mostly from the affluent Phuket/Krabi areas. They had a good hand out already. However, they charge ridiculous prices for the foreigners there and they have always had money and never contributed anything their own people in Isaan

With all due respect, that's simplistic rubbish. Phuket and the tourist areas of Krabi were only small parts of the coast hit by the tsunami. By all means leave them out of the equation (no one in those places is asking for handouts anyway). But there are many thousands of tsunami victims still suffering in poor communities along the coast, particularly in Phang Nga and Ranong - mostly fishing communities - and they still need help.

I suggest you visit, for example, Baan Nam Khem, near Takua Pa (Phang Nga), where one third of the 4,000 inhabitants died and many others are still suffering from injuries or medical conditions for which they receive inadequate treatment. Days after the disaster, powerful "landowners" who had somehow gained title to land on which poor people had lived for decades seized the opportunity to try to drive them out. Those who could afford to do so did move out, leaving behind only the penniless, struggling to make a living from the other penniless. It is still a desperate place to live.

They deserve help, but at the end of 2005, on the first anniversary of the tsunami, Thaksin declared the problems officially fixed, so that was that.