Chirathivat beats Chearavanont to become Thailand’s richest family

[beautifulthailand99]

2,5,6,8&9 look like a bundle of fun.

No 9 looks like a villain straight out of a Bond movie - maybe David Icke is right the world is run by shape shifting lizards ...

[sangfroid]

Yes, but are they really happy? ?

[beautifulthailand99]

Yes, but are they really happy? ?

Death is worse for them because they have so much more to lose - no pockets in shrouds !

[piersbeckett]

Is the true wealth of the Shins really known or do they have a ' little something ' well hidden ?

Yes, being in politics for so long; that's Thai politics,(incidentally Thaksin started out, I believe, as a policeman in Chiang Mai which might well be a 'rags to riches' story & if so, would hold, in itself, great appeal to Thais especially those still in rags) it would be suprising, to me anyway, that all the Shins' assets were declared anywhere but in their own volts & I just sense that being top of the rich list might not appeal to them.

Sorry, but are you ill-informed, a newcomer, just joking, what is it? The Shinawatra family is, for generations already, (one of?) the most wealthy and powerfull family(ies) of Chiang Mai, and the North! Being sent(!) to the Academy was one of the many steps in the shrewd profiling strategy lined out patiently and relentlessly by his father, uncles and some cousins, (MPs, Generals, dep. army chief, police chief, etc.) aimed at bringing their son and relative 'golden boy' Thaksin to the summit of power and wealth in Thailand, what should have lead to the establishment of a Shinawatra dynasty in control of the whole country. So, your 'policeman' and 'rags to riches' story, how 'appealing' it might be to you and red propagandists, is, erm, well, complete bull, sorry.

No, please, don't apologise; I didn't say it was appealing to me or even that I believed it or even that it was the case but it sure drew some interesting and informative responses including yours.

[NeverSure]

Does anyone know if any of them are self-made, i.e. from rags to riches through hard graft ?

Rhetorical Question I think. This is THAILAND and they only make money by using (stealing) other peoples ideas

Just remember this one: 'At the origin of every fortune, there is, at least, one small dishonesty', not that any youngster would mind being dishonest when it is the way to get rich, that far it has come nowadays... And that, we have to 'thank' to the American 'wild capitalism', and their 'globalization', not the hard working American citizens, but that despicable greedy financial 'elite' they let run their country for their own deep pockets, and poison the whole world with their growth theory!

I don't get this part. Bill Gates is a college drop-out who happened to meet a guy who had developed DOS. He saw the potential, borrowed I think $100k from his parents and bought it. Then he went personally to IBM which had the PC but no decent operating system. IBM wanted to buy it but Gates was shrewed enough to only license it by the copy. The rest is history.

The guys who started Google were college students.

McDonald's, Walmart and KFC were started by average working stiffs who started with one small store and an idea.

America is still the land of opportunity so get your facts straight please.

[boomerangutang]

They are all ethnic Chinese

The 10 poorest would probably all be 100% Thai

How about, of the 10 million poorest, about half are Thai and half are hill tribe.

I may be wrong, but I'll venture that those top 10 contribute to (or fund) the following projects, to the following degree:

>>> natural parks = zero

>>> more libraries = zero

>>> tangibly assist hill tribers who are too poor to enable their kids to go to school (school clothing, shoes and books cost too much) = zero

>>> assist hill tribers who have no citizenship = zero

Oh, and I wouldn't doubt the top 10 pay their maids and gardeners minimum, and may also have them work 70 hours a week (I've heard many rich Thais do that).

[beautifulthailand99]

They are all ethnic Chinese

The 10 poorest would probably all be 100% Thai

How about, of the 10 million poorest, about half are Thai and half are hill tribe.

I may be wrong, but I'll venture that those top 10 contribute to (or fund) the following projects, to the following degree:

>>> natural parks = zero

>>> more libraries = zero

>>> tangibly assist hill tribers who are too poor to enable their kids to go to school (school clothing, shoes and books cost too much) = zero

>>> assist hill tribers who have no citizenship = zero

Oh, and I wouldn't doubt the top 10 pay their maids and gardeners minimum, and may also have them work 70 hours a week (I've heard many rich Thais do that).

Some like to build huge monuments to themselves such as the Sanctuary of Truth and Muang Boran. Khun Lek spent billions of baht on these creations - I had the audacity to ask the guide at the Sanctuary of Truth wouldn't it have been better to pay his staff a decent wage. If looks could kill...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_of_Truth

[Ozziepat]

Chinese expats tend to be superior business people. They start small, work hard, excel at whatever limited enterprise they might initially undertake (small noodle shop...), save, expand when they can and take the long view. You'll find them dominant and successful everywhere they are free to engage in business pursuits. They look after themselves and their often large extended families, and I don't believe they share the westerner's ideas about philanthropy. I doubt that is even a word in Chinese. If you believe in such things as IQ, the Chinese are at least 10 points on average ahead of Thais and other SE Asians, so they are always playing downhill in this region (so to speak). Locals tend to resent them and their success, less so perhaps some generations after they inter-marry as they have done extensively in Thailand.

[Frank James]

Some of you seem to believe that Mr. T (barely makes the cut) is the only crook in this lineup. Really?

[beautifulthailand99]

Chinese expats tend to be superior business people. They start small, work hard, excel at whatever limited enterprise they might initially undertake (small noodle shop...), save, expand when they can and take the long view. You'll find them dominant and successful everywhere they are free to engage in business pursuits. They look after themselves and their often large extended families, and I don't believe they share the westerner's ideas about philanthropy. I doubt that is even a word in Chinese. If you believe in such things as IQ, the Chinese are at least 10 points on average ahead of Thais and other SE Asians, so they are always playing downhill in this region (so to speak). Locals tend to resent them and their success, less so perhaps some generations after they inter-marry as they have done extensively in Thailand.

Very true they have perfected the work-work balance..my wife is half Thai half Chinese - a good mix the Chinese part gives her cunning and the Thai part heart !

[Prbkk]

2,5,6,8&9 look like a bundle of fun.

You certainly wouldn't want to get caught between the group of them and a 20 baht note

[Frank James]

Re: Chinese philanthropists (world's shortest book?) I remember visiting the famous and very weird Tiger Balm gardens years ago in Hong Kong. Presumably that guy built it for the enjoyment of the people. Other than that, I'm stumped. Of course, there's no rule book anywhere that says a rich guy has to give away anything, is there?

[kannot]

Great, they can all go out and mow down other road users at will with total impunity....hoooorah!!!

[Luger2]

10. Thaksin Shinawatra & family $1.7 billion

On the bright side for Thaksin, as a Ugandan citizen, he's easily the #1 richest Ugandan, as he nearly doubles the assets of the man formally recognized on Forbes list at number one.

Sudhir Ruparelia, 56, whose net worth the magazine estimates at a staggering $900 million.

http://www.newvision.co.ug/mobile/Detail.aspx?NewsID=637560&CatID=435

Have to look further to see if he's also the # 1 richest Nicaraguan or the # 1 richest Montenegrin.

[marko kok prong]

I had heard whereustay is dating his daughter.

[MeowBundit]

Interesting that they all look nothing like Thais, but more like civilians of a 5 yellow starred red flag country!

Of course. They all descendants of Chinese immigrants from beginning of 20-th century. Almost every rich here is Thai-Chinese. I have meet with one of them, not from these families, but story the same - self-made, perfect education, speaks Thai Chinese and English, a lot of energy and influence even already 60+ years old.

[Thai at Heart]

It is not easy to run a business in Thailand, it is even harder to run a successful one.

So good on them.

However, this being Thailand and tax system being somewhat "easy" i can not help but wonder, how much are they really worth? The undeclared and hidden money.

I am almost certain there are a few more billionaires hanging around with undeclared hidden money.

Take Lengkee family in Pattaya for example. This family has its own streets, hotels, shops, restaurants, condo's, apartments, villa's, villages, etc.

All built with their own money.

Soi Dianna, 3 road and few more are all LK built buildings

If you can put the govt in ur pocket to keep competition out, its a hell of a lot easier.

[perriwinkle]

@UbonRatch --- What do Thai people should look like in your opinion? I understand Thai people are the mix of Indian and Chinese, and probably from other foreign ethnics as well. To my knowledge, they migrate from the south of China. Please tell, as it's interesting to know.

[moe666]

My question is, do those mega rich people ever give any thing to charity like those good

hearted and benevolent multi billionaires in the west and alike? or do they keep it all for

them selves and families? I never get to hear about any sizable charitable donation made

by any of the Maha Seatii of Thailand, do they?

People rich or poor can do as they wish with their money why giving it away is perceived as being good I will never know

[piersbeckett]

Is the true wealth of the Shins really known or do they have a ' little something ' well hidden ?

Yes, being in politics for so long; that's Thai politics,(incidentally Thaksin started out, I believe, as a policeman in Chiang Mai which might well be a 'rags to riches' story & if so, would hold, in itself, great appeal to Thais especially those still in rags) it would be suprising, to me anyway, that all the Shins' assets were declared anywhere but in their own volts & I just sense that being top of the rich list might not appeal to them.

His family was already rich through the practice of tax farming. The government could not be bothered with squeezing money from peasants, so they sold the tax rights to Seng Sae Khu ( Thaksin's great grandfather) [/size] at a discount. Then he would go out and squeeze the tax money from the peasants at the full amount. The rags to riches story of Thaksin as a humble policeman is total complete crap, made up to sound sweet to the ears of the red buffaloes......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaksin_Shinawatra

"Seng Sae Khu had made his fortune through tax farming. Chiang Sae Khu/Shinawatra later founded Shinawatra Silks and then by moving into finance, construction and property development."

Yep, and the 'expurged' wikipedia story doesn't tell how that young Akku Chinese (in his mid-thirties) from the Ku Shun family, newly arrived in Chiang Mai, had succeeded previously in gathering the substantial amount of money needed to buy such 'tax farmer' charge... I heard it were 'trading activities' which had made him rich at young age. But I won't write here what most 'trading activities' between North Siam and the Chinese Empire were about at that time. Silk it was no more, nor livestock nor vegetables...

Such trading, to which I think you refer, is mentioned, albeit not in relation to any individual, under 'Thai Chinese' in Wikipedia.

[pisico]

...and the list of endowments to charities ? Won't find any Bill gates or Chuck feeney style philanthropy with this lot

That would be unThai.

It does not get them merits. Give to a wat, yes!

Detail: According to the National office of Buddhism, there are 37,500 plus wats in Thailand.

Per the covenant and strict rules of the religion, every wat should report annually the amounts received.

The Office admits that out of 37,500 wats, only about 1,500 do so sporadically.

Hence the egregious cased such as the Louis Vuiton monk who siphoned 300 million Baht out of the wat's collection. Add to that the PDRC monk (Issara Buddha) who used the deed to the wat to bail out PDRC activists and asked and received 50,000 Bahts from the government for being inconvenienced during the protest by the police.

That is part of the picture: to stamp out corruption in Thailand is not something we can expect in our lifetime.

[boomerangutang]

Those very large 'net worth' amounts are proof that; 'Rich are getting richer, and poor are getting poorer' in Thailand at a hastened rate, as with most other countries. The net worth amounts are even more obscene when compared to the average income in Thailand. If those amounts were in a country like Switzerland, then it wouldn't be so off-kilter.

[edko]

Does anyone know if any of them are self-made, i.e. from rags to riches through hard graft ?

Rhetorical Question I think. This is THAILAND and they only make money by using (stealing) other peoples ideas

Just remember this one: 'At the origin of every fortune, there is, at least, one small dishonesty', not that any youngster would mind being dishonest when it is the way to get rich, that far it has come nowadays... And that, we have to 'thank' to the American 'wild capitalism', and their 'globalization', not the hard working American citizens, but that despicable greedy financial 'elite' they let run their country for their own deep pockets, and poison the whole world with their growth theory!

I don't get this part. Bill Gates is a college drop-out who happened to meet a guy who had developed DOS. He saw the potential, borrowed I think $100k from his parents and bought it. Then he went personally to IBM which had the PC but no decent operating system. IBM wanted to buy it but Gates was shrewed enough to only license it by the copy. The rest is history.

The guys who started Google were college students.

McDonald's, Walmart and KFC were started by average working stiffs who started with one small store and an idea.

America is still the land of opportunity so get your facts straight please.

Aha. Now the book that I read said that IBM first approached Dr. Gary Kildall who invented the CPM operating system, but Dr. Kildare declined to meet with them as he had a private flying lesson scheduled for the time that the emissaries from IBM wished to meet...So they contacted Microsoft and after learning what it was that they wanted, Paul Allen jumped into a motor boat with an outboard motor and sped out to Vashon Island where he concluded a purchase agreement for DOS from the developer for a measly $10,000, came back to Seattle the same evening and concluded the deal with IBM.