Former BBC Adviser Rakesh Saxena Gets 10 Year Prison Sentence

[webfact]

FINANCIAL CRIME

Former BBC adviser gets 10year prison sentence

The Nation

File Photo : Rakesh by Kunlaphun Sirimamporn

BANGKOK: -- A Thai court on Friday sentenced Rakesh Saxena, the high-profile former bank adviser, to 10 years in prison and fined him Bt1 million for approving bad loans.

Rakesh, an Indian, was involved in the Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BBC)'s Bt1.66billion fraud, which later led to the collapse of the bank at the beginning of the financial crisis in 1997.

Saxena was charged in 1996 but fled to Canada. He was extradited to Thailand in 2009.

The court said Rakesh "damaged the country's economy",

Legal Execution Department chief Wisit Wisitsoraart had said that his office had retrieved Bt415 million from Swiss banks as part of its operation in relation to the failed Bangkok Bank of Commerce.

Wisit said his department, in cooperation with the Office of the Attorney General and the Bank of Thailand, had traced the embezzled assets hidden in Switzerland by Kirkkiat Chaleejan, Rakesh and other former BBC executives.

He said another batch of about Bt100 million would be returned to Thailand later, and the money would be repaid to creditors. The department is also looking for assets hidden in Canada, he said.

Wisit added that Bt686 million had been collected from auctions so far and would be returned to the 14 financial institutions.

-- The Nation 2012-06-08

[Jobiwankenobi]

1 Down.............approximately 34 high profile Thais who were also in on this scam to go........don't hold your breath though. Eh.

[webfact]

Thai court jails banker who helped spark Asia crisis

Bangkok, June 8, 2012 (AFP) - A Thai court on Friday sentenced a former Indian financier to 10 years in prison over a multi-million-dollar fraud case that helped trigger the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Rakesh Saxena was accused of embezzling 1.7 billion baht ($52 million) from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce while working as an adviser in the mid-1990s.

The Criminal Court in Bangkok ordered Saxena to pay a fine of one million baht and return more than 1.1 billion baht of misappropriated funds, a court official told AFP.

If Saxena -- who arrived at court in a wheelchair -- cannot pay the fine his prison sentence will be increased by up to two years, the official said.

The Bangkok Bank of Commerce collapsed in 1995 and Saxena fled to Vancouver. He lost a 13-year fight against extradition and was deported to Thailand in 2009.

The failure of the bank contributed to the turmoil that led to the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the devaluation of the Thai baht.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2012-06-08

[webfact]

Court jails ex-financier 10 years for embezzlement

BANGKOK, June 8 - Thailand's South Bangkok Criminal Court on Friday handed down a 10-year jail term and a fine of one million baht to a former commercial bank adviser for embezzlement.

Wheelchair-bound Rakesh Saxena, 60, arrived in an orange-coloured prison uniform to hear the verdict.

The court ordered him, and several accomplices, to jointly pay Bt1.132 billion restitution to damaged parties in the saga of the failed Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BBC).

The Indian-born financier served as adviser to Krirkkiat Jalichandra, former BBC president, who

with two other bank executives was sentenced to 20 years in jail for embezzling Bt1.22 billion from the bank.

Mr Saxena was found guilty in violating the Securities and Exchange Act in 1995. The defendant, his former boss Mr Krirkkiat, and two other bank executives were prosecuted for jointly applying for a two billion baht loan from the bank via a nominee company. Mr Saxena presented the loan papers for his boss' approval with land as collateral. The land's real value was Bt26.9 million but was then falsely expanded to Bt1.350 billion by Mr Saxena and his accomplices.

The court found the act to be an embezzlement of bank assets.

The prosecutors then asked the court to order the defendants to return the embezzled money in the amount of Bt1.657 billion for the damaged parties.

It is the first case for which ailing Mr Saxena has been prosecuted since his extradition from Canada in 2009. He was never granted bail since being extradited, but was put behind bars at the maximum-security Bangkok Remand Prison. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-06-08

[koknia]

Has this guy ever heard of second passports?

Why on earth stay in Canada waiting to be extradited?....the stupidity...

Uh, this guy is anything but stupid. He was under house arrest in Vancouver for years.

[Kerryd]

Has this guy ever heard of second passports?

Why on earth stay in Canada waiting to be extradited?....the stupidity...

Uh, this guy is anything but stupid. He was under house arrest in Vancouver for years.

He fled to Canada because he was originally going to be facing a death penalty in Thailand. He knew Canada would never extradite him as long as he faced that penalty.

As Thailand had requested his extradition, his passport was taken from him. The Canadian gov't didn't want to have to pay for protection for this guy (fearing he'd be kidnapped and suddenly reappear in Thailand). He agreed to pay for his own security and was living in a hi class penthouse apartment in Vancouver.

He also managed to get involved in some shady schemes (stock market "boiler room" scams and the like) but apparently was able to avoid jail.

Thailand agreed to drop the death penalty if Canada would extradite this guy. Then his lawyers started playing the system. Every time a court would approve the extradition, his lawyers would appeal it to a higher court.

That's why it took frikken 13 years for this CRIMINAL to finally get deported from Canada.

(And people wonder why our justice system seems to favour criminals and criminalize victims. We can't even get rid of known criminals. I'm surprised he didn't just throw away all his ID and claim refugee status. That would have pretty much guaranteed he could stay in Canada for at least another 10+ years.)

[Payboy]

Rakesh Saxena Gets 10 Year Prison Sentence

No more sequels to Lord of the Rings, then.

[noitom]

It would be interesting to have a quick look at all the people in Saxena's little black book. Many will never be charged or convicted.

[northernboy]

Why convict a Thai when the Indian did it. Do you not know he was guilty and only innocent Thais were blamed.

Guess some thieves will get pardoned, others ten years, guess it is who your family and friends are.

[rakman]

Why doesn't the Thai government go after George Soros and Julian Robertson for helping to crush the Baht?

[Arkady]

Has this guy ever heard of second passports?

Why on earth stay in Canada waiting to be extradited?....the stupidity...

Uh, this guy is anything but stupid. He was under house arrest in Vancouver for years.

He fled to Canada because he was originally going to be facing a death penalty in Thailand. He knew Canada would never extradite him as long as he faced that penalty.

As Thailand had requested his extradition, his passport was taken from him. The Canadian gov't didn't want to have to pay for protection for this guy (fearing he'd be kidnapped and suddenly reappear in Thailand). He agreed to pay for his own security and was living in a hi class penthouse apartment in Vancouver.

He also managed to get involved in some shady schemes (stock market "boiler room" scams and the like) but apparently was able to avoid jail.

Thailand agreed to drop the death penalty if Canada would extradite this guy. Then his lawyers started playing the system. Every time a court would approve the extradition, his lawyers would appeal it to a higher court.

That's why it took frikken 13 years for this CRIMINAL to finally get deported from Canada.

(And people wonder why our justice system seems to favour criminals and criminalize victims. We can't even get rid of known criminals. I'm surprised he didn't just throw away all his ID and claim refugee status. That would have pretty much guaranteed he could stay in Canada for at least another 10+ years.)

The death penalty threat was something invented by Saxena in his PR campaign to stay in Canada. He never face it in Thailand because he was never charged with a capital crime. They would have had to charge him with treason, a highly unlikely scenario. Last year Canada happily extradited a Canadian who murdered his Thai wife in Pattaya in 1996, although I think the charge had to be dropped to manslaughter to ensure no possibility of death penalty.

He looks pretty awful these days. I don't suppose he will last long in prison with more cases coming up and little hope of ever getting out alive. I believe that Krikkiat is still out on bail pending his appeal to the Supreme court. It is clear that both Saxena and Krikkiat are guilty and deserve their sentences but I remember offhand only one other guy getting convicted for the BBC scandal, Ekkachai. There were plently of other guilty parties, including all the politicians who took the fraudulent loans they never repaid and arguably the governor of the Bank of Thailand who looked the other way, in spite of all countless warnings from his financial institutions supervision staff, because Krikkiat was his blue eyed boy. Justice is very delayed and very selective in this case.

I remember he used to pose as a financial engineering expert and even had a column in the Bangkok Post about swaps and options where he plagiarised articles from first year college textbooks to wow the Bangkok readership. Even relatively sleazy people in the financial sector who met him were appalled by his obvious sleaziness and it was obvious that he was up to no good as at BBC where he thought not being on the board or having any signing authority would protect him when the balloon inevitably went up. The financial engineering he did in reality involved purchasing dud assets that nobody wanted like Turkish car loans and some Russian garbage for next to nothing and inflating the price through cats cradles of offshore companies so he and his cronies could steal the difference. I think the Thai management organized the bad loans to politicians by themsleves but Saxena might have added some finesse to the structures.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Arkady

[Rancid]

Despite the lack of anyone else being charged, the Thais have still managed to nail one more corrupt banker than the US and Europe combined whose impressive total to date is zero.

[belg]

and i tought farangs, mhhh, indian a farang? were not allowed in those kind of businesses

[Arkady]

and i tought farangs, mhhh, indian a farang? were not allowed in those kind of businesses

Not so. Banking has never been a restricted profession. There are many foreign bankers in Thailand and several 100% foreign owned banks too. Saxena was always only a consultant to BBC. I think he was not even on the payroll but was employed through his own consulting company.

[asiawatcher]

Has this guy ever heard of second passports?

Why on earth stay in Canada waiting to be extradited?....the stupidity...

He's Indian...

[gand]

So he got a 10 year visa and does not have to do any 90 day reporting either.

[fasteddie]

Despite the lack of anyone else being charged, the Thais have still managed to nail one more corrupt banker than the US and Europe combined whose impressive total to date is zero.

Nice one!

[seminomadic]

Is there such a thing as (relatively) 'easy time' here in Thailand for white collar crimes?

[fasteddie]

Don't know why you're all dissing the guy! if he's the guy who devalued the baht he's a hero in my eyes! hope there's another one at work right now.

[Time Traveller]

Why doesn't the Thai government go after George Soros and Julian Robertson for helping to crush the Baht?

Perhaps they should first try to catch their own criminals who have broken known laws before bothering about going after people they don't like that have broken made-up laws that don't exist. Oh, they've already tried that with Taksin and can't catch him either.

[cdnski12]

Saxena lived in Canada for 14 years, 12 of which he lived in luxurious condos in the Vancouver Area. I think his family still lives in Canada. Unfortunately the Cdn Legal system expended mega millions deporting Saxena. Not sure if the Cdn Taxpayer ever recoved any of the Legal costs. Canada also returnred Lai Changxing to China for similar reasons of financial impropriety Canada is a haven for Asians on the run from their local Governments. LOS has Hookers, Canada has lax Immigration and expert deportation Lawyers.

[Gonsalviz]

Why doesn't the Thai government go after George Soros and Julian Robertson for helping to crush the Baht?

Oh please, are you going to join up with Mahadir and claim the 1997 Asian money crisis was the fault of a couple of businessmen and had nothing to do with the underhanded Asian financial practices?

Edited June 8, 2012 by Gonsalviz

[Jimjim]

I'm not sure why everyone is saying no Thais were charged. If you read post #5 it says this:

"The Indian-born financier served as adviser to Krirkkiat Jalichandra, former BBC president, who

with two other bank executives was sentenced to 20 years in jail for embezzling Bt1.22 billion from the bank.."

So I assume those Thais are now in jail? Though I have heard of high-profile rich people "being in jail" in Thailand meaning when someone goes to check with plenty of warning they are there but the rest of the time they pay bribes to live outside of jail. At least that's what some Thai friends told me. Not sure if it's true or not.

[theblether]

Another boiler room scumbag

Thailand needs to build more prisons and fill them up with these dregs.

[Payboy]

Anyone remember this?

The Nation (Thailand)

03-03-1999

CHAT Thai Party leader Banharn Silapa-archa says he will file a

lawsuit against Rakesh Saxena, the fugitive financier in the Bangkok Bank

of Commerce loan and embezzlement cases, for accusing him of taking bribes.

In an extradition hearing in Canada, Saxena testified before British

Columbia's supreme court on Feb 25 that he paid bribes to Banharn to cover

election expenses in 1995.

''If Saxena is extradited to face charges in Thailand, I will

definitely file a suit against him for defaming me,'' he said.

Chat Thai Party spokesman Tossaporn Serirak said after a party meeting

on Tuesday it will consult the …

[MobileContent]

Saxena lived in Canada for 14 years, 12 of which he lived in luxurious condos in the Vancouver Area. I think his family still lives in Canada. Unfortunately the Cdn Legal system expended mega millions deporting Saxena. Not sure if the Cdn Taxpayer ever recoved any of the Legal costs. Canada also returnred Lai Changxing to China for similar reasons of financial impropriety Canada is a haven for Asians on the run from their local Governments. LOS has Hookers, Canada has lax Immigration and expert deportation Lawyers.

His brother still lives in Bangkok and is an Executive Vice President at one of the largest banks in Thailand. Before joining that bank, he was EVP at Laem Thong Bank...

[MobileContent]

According to Wikipedia:

From 1985 to 1996, Thailand's economy grew at an average of over 9% per year, the highest economic growth rate of any country at the time. Inflation was kept reasonably low within a range of 3.4–5.7%.^[18] The baht was pegged at 25 to the US dollar.

On 14 May and 15 May 1997, the Thai baht was hit by massive speculative attacks. On 30 June 1997, Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said that he would not devalue the baht. This was the spark that ignited the Asian financial crisis as the Thai government failed to defend the baht, which was pegged to the basket of currencies in which the U.S. dollar was the main component,^[19] against international speculators.

Thailand's booming economy came to a halt amid massive layoffs in finance, real estate, and construction that resulted in huge numbers of workers returning to their villages in the countryside and 600,000 foreign workers being sent back to their home countries.^[20] The baht devalued swiftly and lost more than half of its value. The baht reached its lowest point of 56 units to the US dollar in January 1998. The Thai stock market dropped 75%. Finance One, the largest Thai finance company until then, collapsed.^[21]

I believe strongly it was Finance One that triggered the crisis, including the small family run financial institutions that used money from their bank to finance huge property developments.

[gaucho]

oh the poor dear ....how come all these high flyers end up in wheelchairs ?

[rakman]

Why doesn't the Thai government go after George Soros and Julian Robertson for helping to crush the Baht?

Oh please, are you going to join up with Mahadir and claim the 1997 Asian money crisis was the fault of a couple of businessmen and had nothing to do with the underhanded Asian financial practices?

Not at all.

Unfortunately the 1997 crisis was the result of Tax Cheat Timmy Giethner who improperly diagnosed the Asian crisis and the IMF instituted the wrong policy, the result is no country in Asia will even look at the IMF again. The failure of the IMF put China in position to cause an incredible economic imbalance in the world.

Soros and Robertson merely used their contacts and money to crush the Ringgit and the Baht, leaving millions of poor people to suffer. And Soros, at the least, laughed about it.

[jerrysteve]

A FEW OTHER COUNTRIES IN SOUTH AMERICA PERHAPS WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETTER CHOICES.