Is This A Ghost Company?

[ratcatcher]

The house likely to haunt Suvarnabhumi authorities

Published on December 29, 2005

Tales of evictions and a dead body at deserted home registered as residence of Frobisher major shareholder. It looks more like a haunted house than the registered residence of someone who owns half the shares in a company that has won a lucrative ground-services deal at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

From our investigation, the house pictured above should be where Rawadi Jantawit, who owns 50,000 shares in Singapore-based Frobisher Pte Co Ltd, has her registered home. Rawadi, however, was not there when The Nation visited. In fact, the house was totally deserted and the neighbours told some spooky tales.

Frobisher, through its 48.5-per-cent share in Thai Airport Ground Services Co (TAGS), will take charge of ground services at Bangkok’s new airport. TAGS will manage Suvarnabhumi’s ground services for an annual fee of about Bt1 billion - thanks to a controversial concession that never went to public tender.

Rawadi is one of the two shareholders in Frobisher, having held the same amount of shares as the firm’s Singaporean director since June 23. According to the official Singaporean document, she has a registered address at 1330 Nawamin Road, Klong Chan, Bang Kapi, Bangkok.

With the help of the post office, the address was traced to this deserted two-storey house, which shows no address number. Situated on a 100 square-metre plot of land, the house is flanked by a canal to the right and a shophouse.

The dusty house’s windows were open. But it was a lonely place, with only a few big trees, some bougainvillaea and grass around the house. The fence was locked with a master key.

From the house’s condition, it’s clear that no one has taken care of it for a long time.

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said yesterday that nobody had lived there for about a year. Previously it was a small garage serviced by a family. Their customers rarely came. But the garage owner did not own the home. The owner was a woman who died long time ago, the neighbour said.

Two months before the garage owner moved, he was evicted by people believed to be relatives of the landlord. That was about a year ago.

“Two months ago, the body of man was hung here. But he was murdered somewhere else. I smelt the body and called the police to check it out. They found the body.

“An episode of the television programme about mysteries - Miti Pissawong - was also shot here,” the neighbour said.

Street children that used to sneak into the house have stopped doing that since the body was found. When the garage owner moved, postmen used to leave mail for the same address with him. However, he did not care enough to take a look at the names on the mail, the neighbour went on.

An officer at the Klong Chan post office confirmed that this house is number 1330. Postmen usually deposit mail at the spare-parts shop next door. However, the house has been deserted for a long time.

Rawadi is said to be managing director of Maxima Master Co Ltd, a licensed producer of Maxima built-in furniture.

On June 4, just a few weeks before her share holding in Frobisher was registered, Rawadi donated Bt100,000 to a project to help poor people with heart and eye problems. The project was organised by wives of Cabinet ministers and the Public Health Ministry, and dedicated to Her Majesty the Queen.

But the reason why Rawadi used this deserted house as her registered residence is a mystery.

Even more curious, the government has shown little interest finding out the identity of shareholders in Frobisher, despite media suspicion that the Singapore firm is linked to powerful Thai politicians.

Transport Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal’s reaction to these concerns was all but dismissive. He insisted that while he had no idea who the shareholders of Frobisher were, the people owning the firm was not a big issue as long as TAGS could do its job stated in the airport deal.

This kind of business intrigue is nothing unusual under the Thaksin government, however.

In August 2004, it was discovered that the man who “owns” a British Virgin Islands firm that bought millions of Thai Military Bank (TMB) shares the previous year was no millionaire. Yoo Siwarom, the registered owner of “Private Media”, which accepted a suspiciously generous offer from TV Channel 5 to buy TMB shares, was a second-hand car dealer living in a Bangkok townhouse with a run-down home in Ubon Ratchathani.

Budsarakham Sinlapalavan

The Nation

"CURIOUSER & CURIOUSER" to quote Lewis Carroll.

That's what Thailand is becoming everyday.

Frobisher, through its 48.5-per-cent share in Thai Airport Ground Services Co (TAGS), will take charge of ground services at Bangkok’s new airport. TAGS will manage Suvarnabhumi’s ground services for an annual fee of about Bt1 billion - thanks to a controversial concession that never went to public tender.

Does anybody,including The Nation newspaper know anything about this mysterious company and this bizarre transaction?

Who is the mystery lady Rawadi Jantawit, and what Influential person/s are behind her?

Further investigation will no doubt shed light on this fascinating situation.

Meanwhile The Mad Hatter continues his tea party at Charansanitwong 69.

Edited December 29, 2005 by ratcatcher