Name Your Favorite Thai Corruption Case

[jfchandler]

I was reading the U.S. indictment document in the Siriwan-TAT case (which I included as an attachment in the prior post on the case) tonight...and it makes for interesting reading... using her daughter to allegedly take down $1.8 million out of a $14 million project, with payments to a variety of foreign bank accounts.

I suppose it's possible the lack of any apparent follow-up here in Thailand might have something to do with others here having shared in the bounty...

[jfchandler]

And then there was this from our Prime Minister lately:

Posted 2011-06-02

Corruption spreading like plague : PM

By The Nation

Corruption has inflicted untold damage to the country's competitiveness, spreading like a neverending plague, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday, urging all sectors of society to unite in rooting out graft.

"As government leader, I know politicians have been joint suspects," he said, conceding that he was not satisfied with the anti-Corruption fight in the past two years under his watch.

Abhisit said he hoped the July 3 election would be a turning point for every political party to come up with a road map to fight corruption, which he believed had become a complex issue and could not be easily detected.

He voiced concern about the attempts to rig the bids for public projects by inflating the benchmark price, thus adding kickbacks as part of the cost borne by the government instead of the tea money paid by the winning contractor. The inflated cost would later be distributed via moneylaundering.

He was speaking at an antiCorruption seminar jointly organised by the government and the private sector. Seminar sponsors included the National AntiCorruption Commission, the Federation of Thai Industries, the Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Thai Bankers' Association.

(more)

[4.real]

My favourite would not be counted as 'corruption'.

Some years back the supreme court judges decided to give themselves a miniscule salary increase.

It was quickly pointed out to them that they could not legally do this.

'OH Dear' was the response....'Well we'd better all resign from our posts till it gets sorted out'

Which they all did.

I merely wonder what was the biggest case due to come before them that had to be disbanded because time had run out to hear the case.

Then there was the Sukhumwit overhead road and the recompense for taking land to build the entrances.

Plus the Banharn government's last act which was to give some company rights to sell lottery tickets via vending machines....

Edited June 25, 2011 by 4.real

[jfchandler]

And then there was the Snoh and Alpine Golf case, clearing the way for him to run in the upcoming election as a PT candidate:

Posted 2010-11-20

ALPINE SCANDAL

Snoh saved by legal technicality

By The Nation

The Supreme Court on Friday cited statutory limitations to dismiss a case arising from the so-called "ALPINE Scandal" against a former interior minister on charges of allegedly abusing his authority to purchase two plots of land.

A nine-member committee of the National Anti-Corruption Commission made a unanimous decision to try Snoh Thienthong, also Pracharaj Party leader, in February.

The commission sued Snoh for alleged corruption related to the ALPINE land scam when he was the interior minister in 1990.

The NACC report was forwarded to the Office of the Attorney-general for trial preparation.

The high court ruled that the case was actually lodged after the expiry of the August 21 deadline.

(more)

http://www.thaivisa....ost__p__4035218

Edited June 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

Posted 2011-05-14 06

JULY 3 ELECTION

Snoh confirms move to Pheu Thai

By The Nation

Pracharaj Party leader Snoh Thienthong yesterday confirmed his decision to change parties in order to run as a Pheu Thai party-list candidate.

"I share the same aspirations as Pheu Thai - to uphold the monarchy, to foster good relations with neighbouring countries and to wage the ultimate war on illicit drugs," he said.

Snoh said his party-list ranking would be finalised at Monday's Pheu Thai meeting.

He said the Pracharaj Party would continue under a caretaker leader. Three former MPs from the Thienthong family, Sorawong, Thanit and Treenuch, will follow Snoh to Pheu Thai.

(more)

And separately:

Meanwhile, Surachart Thienthong, son of veteran politician Snoh, is trying his best to win votes in Bangkok's Don Muang Constituency 11 under the Pheu Thai Party.

[hanuman1]

I know the episode behind the Saudi jewellery case wasn't initially perpetrated on these shores, but surely the subsequent domestic shenanigans and the people who are implicated make this one the pick of the crop....

Edited June 25, 2011 by hanuman1

[sharecropper]

A couple of years ago there were big cases about longan contracts with many people fingered but as far as I know never brought to justice, and a while ago another case relating to the sale of substandard canned fish, Also massive and many thefts of rice from warehouses, and false accounting cases.

And of course the utter disgrace of the embezzled Tsunami money, which had Western embassies writing to the government.

LONGANS

Court date set for Longan scandal prosecutions

Longan growers and government officials involved in fraud will be prosecuted at the end of the month, and more than 22,000 tonnes of contaminated and dehydrated longans harvested in 2002 will be destroyed, the head of a committee set up to dispose of the ruined fruit said yesterday. Pol General Seripisut Temiyavej said the growers and officials will be prosecuted on July 28 and 29 on charges of perjury, misrepresentation, falsification of legal documents and fraud. The suspects were allegedly involved in falsifying amounts of longans and charging for fruit that did not exist, he said.

Seripisut heads a panel that was assigned to destroy dehydrated and contaminated longans harvested in 2002. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra supports the plan to destroy all contaminated longan now that the new longan season is upon us. Over 22,670 tonnes of longan are scheduled for destruction in Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Chiang Rai and Nakhon Sawan provinces. The committee concluded that a provincial-level panel should be set up to destroy dehydrated and contaminated longans. He said destroyed longans would be used as fertiliser. Disposal of the fruit will start in Nakhon Sawan on July 27, Chiang Rai on July 28, Lamphun on July 29 and Chiang Mai on July 30. The Cabinet has ordered that the destruction be completed by the end of the month. The cost of destroying the fruit is estimated at Bt8 million, he said. Longan cartons worth between Bt20 million to Bt30 million will also be destroyed to prevent any misunderstanding that longans from 2002 have been recycled.

AND

Thailand to barter rice for Chinese trains after longan scandal

Date: 12 Nov 2005

Thailand to barter rice for Chinese trains after longan scandal

Bangkok (dpa) - Thailand and China have agreed to barter 25 million

dollars worth of Thai rice for seven Chinese trains after a similar

deal involving longan fruit ended in scandal, the state-run Thai News

Agency (TNA) reported on Saturday.

The new barter arrangement was reached Friday between the Thai

government and China's CNR Company, replacing a previous deal to barter

Thailand's 2003 to 2005 dried longan stock for the Chinese locomotives.

"CNR Co. is now willing to export seven locomotives in exchange for

another Thai agricultural produce, and it's likely that we'll ship Thai

rice stock," Thai Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister

Sudarat Keyuraphan told the TNA.

She added the Chinese government had found a new firm to purchase the

dried longans in exchange for Chinese armoured vehicles.

Under the previous agreement, CNR Co. was to import three years worth

of dried Thai longan crop by January 31, 2006, but failed to do so

because the stock mysteriously disappeared.

The longan barter deal raised questions over the transparency of the

arrangement and sparked an investigation into irregularities, although

no one has yet taken responsibility for the scandal.

ROTTING FISH

Fish scandal costs Thai PM first Cabinet minister

BANGKOK -- A junior minister in Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's month-old cabinet resigned on Tuesday amid a corruption scandal involving rotten canned fish given to flood victims. Witoon, the first Abhisit Cabinet member to step down, said he did not know how the bad cans of fish, which made dozens of rural people violently ill, had made it into packages handed out to flood victims by his ministry in the south.

“My resignation is a painful decision as I have not in any way been involved in this. My action is not made under pressure from party members or party executives,” he told a news conference.

RICE (just one example of MANY)

Thailand Lifts Ban on 30 Rice Millers after Inventory Scandal.

Dec. 5--About 30 rice millers on a Commerce Ministry blacklist will be allowed to resume doing business with the government soon.

They are among 100 millers accused by previous ministers including Adisai Bodharamik of having cheated and falsely reported stocks to siphon state subsidies.

However, Commerce Minister Watana Muangsook said yesterday that many of the blacklisted millers had no intention to cheat the rice-pledging programme and he wanted them to join the programme again.

He said he had asked the president of the Thai Rice Millers Association, Pramote Vanichanont, to select those millers who had made minor …

TSUNAMI

Western embassies complain of missing tsunami donations

Bangkok - Seven Western countries have submitted a joint complaint to Thailand's police department about the disappearance of an estimated 1 million dollars in donations intended for victims of the December 26, 2004, tsunami, a news report said Monday.

The complaint - dated November 22 and signed by the ambassadors to the Bangkok-based embassies of Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Britain and the United States - alleged that more than 60 per cent of about 60 million baht (1.7 million dollars) in funds collected from their citizens for tsunami victims were 'wasted and disguised as travelling and other miscellaneous expenses,' The Nation newspaper reported, citing unnamed informed sources.

'To be frank, someone has stolen our citizens' money,' one of the sources told the English-language daily.

In their joint letter, addressed to Police Chief Kowit Watana, the Western envoys called for an internal audit by 'a reputable and qualified private accountancy company.'

The Boxing Day disaster killed an estimated 5,300 people in Thailand's provinces of Phuket, Phang Nha and Krabi - all popular resort destinations on the Andaman Sea coast.

Nearly half the victims were foreign tourists vacationing in Thailand. The disaster, falling the day after Christmas, prompted a huge outpouring of charity from Western countries that may have exceeded Thailand's needs and absorption capacity, aid workers have noted.

Embassy sources could not be immediately reached Monday during the Christmas holiday to confirm the contents of the letter.

[gregb]

Let's not forget the Alpine Land Scandal. It doesn't really compare in scope and pure brazenness with some of the other cases that have been mentioned here, but it is an excellent example of how if you simply embed the corruption deep enough to where it involves and affects too many people, not only will you not be investigated, but you CAN'T be investigated. Even when the evidence of wrongdoing is overwhelming.

Edit: Oops. Sorry. I see that was already mentioned above. Not surprising that the news headline was of a legal technicality to make the case go away.

Edited June 26, 2011 by gregb

[jfchandler]

Let's not forget the Alpine Land Scandal. It doesn't really compare in scope and pure brazenness with some of the other cases that have been mentioned here, but it is an excellent example of how if you simply embed the corruption deep enough to where it involves and affects too many people, not only will you not be investigated, but you CAN'T be investigated. Even when the evidence of wrongdoing is overwhelming.

Edit: Oops. Sorry. I see that was already mentioned above. Not surprising that the news headline was of a legal technicality to make the case go away.

Yes, and the final chapter coming some 20 years after the original wrongdoing (1990 vs 2010).

You gotta wonder, what the H were the authorities (so to speak) doing in all the intervening years...

Well, I guess you don't have to wonder too much....

[jfchandler]

A couple of years ago there were big cases about longan contracts with many people fingered but as far as I know never brought to justice, and a while ago another case relating to the sale of substandard canned fish, Also massive and many thefts of rice from warehouses, and false accounting cases.

And of course the utter disgrace of the embezzled Tsunami money, which had Western embassies writing to the government.

Thanks for adding to our long list of scandals, Sharecropper... Some of those also I'd never heard of before...and the tsunami one was particularly interesting...and galling....

If you have dates and/or links to the source articles you included in your post, please add them....