Thaksin aide jailed for rice fraud

[Thai at Heart]

Actually he was bailed after being found guilty.

He wasn't jailed at all.

[Thai at Heart]

Fraud and embezzlement occur in all walks of life, and I'm willing to bet there's been a few "expenses" claims submitted by some forum members that were not "accurate" and a few extra items were added to them.. thats fraud. Especially the good old "mileage" when using ones personal car, with a thought "what's another 15-20 miles added, it's a big company, it's peanuts to them" ...fraud.

British MP's have been slowly been brought to account in their fraudulent expenses claims, time for the Thai's and the Farangs who have done the same to their employers be brought to account, Yeah Farangs!! The ones who work for Thai company's, I've no doubt there's some of them at the ham too!!

There are still members getting confused on this case, and the shambolic rice pledging scheme and they're trying to link dots, when it's more a case of the square peg in the round hole. All they're seeing is "Thaksin" and then the blinkers come down, the brains and the fingers on the keyboards start to go into overdrive.

It must be a coincidence that PT/Thaksin and the Reds are 90% of the time at the hart of controversy, violence, cronyism, nepotism and corruption... And that for over a decade. The desert rat is truly misunderstood I guess.

Well considering they've been in power for the best part of that 10 years, it's no surprise they're the focus, and not without justification either, however, at a haphazard guess, that you're a Democrat/Yellow supporter, you'd of course be able to say that the short tenure of the appointment to power, through the Junta, of the Democrats, was totally flawless, there was no abuse of power, no cronyism, nepotism or corruption what so ever during that time? It was a Shangrila, a Utopia, serendipity, so much so, that the happy happy people, free from all the things you mentioned...actually voted for someone else?

Corruption doesn't make a distinction between allegiances, or shirt colours, or positions in society as far as I'm concerned, and that should be the same for everyone who wants to see and end to it. Yellow, White, Red, Black Brown, or Pink.. you participate in corruption, you pay the consequences, doesn't matter if you're the PM, or the guy who cleans his shitter, if you're corrupt, it makes no odds, it makes no odds if it was over 10,000 baht or 100M baht, the definition remains the same..

Actually now that you mention it, you could also swap out the name of the PTP/Thaksin and replace it with the current establishment, and the same tune would still be played

The reds are far from innocent, but lets not deflect a common problem away from the other players in Thai Politics who are not of the red variety

For the obvious record, PTP politicians committed unprecedented acts of graft on a scale not seen here before; the rice scheme, proceeds from flooding funds, the car scheme, the home scheme, on and on it goes. Doesn't mean other parties didn't ever do it, but not on such an epidemic level absolutely damaging the heck out of the country with everything they do and plan on a massive scale- nor with such ineptitude in which everything they did failed disastrously.

A voice within reason, spot on Gemini, it's the scale that things went to that makes it appear worse, in financial terms the amounts are indeed a quantum leap, as opposed to other reported areas of corruption, I have no time for those who have benefited from, or instigated corruption. This is why the Judiciary needs urgent reforms before tackling those guilty of corruption, so that they DO get what they deserve within the parameters of the Law, in every country they say "The Law's and ass" but here in Thailand, it's like a bag of spanners, there's no continuity, 6 years for fraud and embezzlement of 200M Baht, and a 12,000 baht fine compared to 15 years in Jail, and what was it? a 1M baht fine for 250mg of cocaine?

Sentencing and bail rules and recommendations in Thailand are a farce. What about the bloke with the 5000 year sentence for embezzling 500k. Bailing murderers?

There is no concept in the measure of damage to the public and protecting the public. Ti

The system really does enforce on rule for one and one rule for another.

[Carnlough]

Brilliant, more to come, "Sweet Dreams" ......

[wandasloan]

Technically not part of the actual Farmers Rice Sceme,but an offshoot of the Scam,showing that the rice was fair game for con merchants!

It's not a technicality. It's not semantics. It's not a trick.

THIS CASE - sorry to shout but I want to emphasise this - THIS CASE was years before the rice-purchase scheme. This crime happened under the supervision of a military government. This case is about rice EXPORTS and does not concern subsidy programmes. This sub-case is a small part of an overall President Agri case that is quite enveloping - but THIS CASE does not concern PTP, Yingluck or the 2011 rice-purchase scheme. This case occurred wholly and completely in 2007. This particular case has no known connection to any Shinawatra.

I suppose in supplication and payment of tribute to the Official Thai Visa Committee In Charge Of Deciding Thaksin Cases With Organised Shoutdown that I have to humbly beg for understanding that I am writing here about THIS CASE of the OP and admit in writing in the blood of my first born that, yes, Thaksin is a crony-loving, corrupt, amoral or immoral businessman and politician. But he has no legal connection with this case, and neither does any Shinawatra including Yingluck (who still had many years to go before she entered politics) and neither does Pheu Thai (which didn't exist at the time) and neither did the rice-purchase programme (which didn't exist at the time)..

THIS CASE is the responsibility of corrupt or careless officers of the Royal Thai Army in charge of overseeing the commerce ministry in 2007, there is no third possbility.

,

[Shaunduhpostman]

I wonder if the Iranians that he screwed will allow him to get away with this without consequences even if Thailand grants him the impunity for life honors.

Good luck sir.

[wandasloan]

I wonder if the Iranians that he screwed will allow him to get away with this without consequences even if Thailand grants him the impunity for life honors.

Good luck sir.

It was in the papers and everything. Iran cut off ALL purchases from Thailand. In the past few months, they have been very carefully and warily negotiating resuming purchases.

No secret about it. But there's nothing else Iran can do about the man refusing to deliver the product they ordered. I don't see any other possible consequences by Tehran.

.

[Thai at Heart]

I wonder if the Iranians that he screwed will allow him to get away with this without consequences even if Thailand grants him the impunity for life honors.

Good luck sir.

It was in the papers and everything. Iran cut off ALL purchases from Thailand. In the past few months, they have been very carefully and warily negotiating resuming purchases.

No secret about it. But there's nothing else Iran can do about the man refusing to deliver the product they ordered. I don't see any other possible consequences by Tehran.

.

I don't think anyone should discount the possibility that they whole point of the tender should be that no rice ever be delivered and that it might be a fraud of some sort with the full knowledge of the Iranians.

Wasnt it around this time that sanctions and whatnots were being imposed on Iran. As such, if in the case of most of these tenders, money was delivered to Bangkok, some papers forged, but no rice actually delivered, there would be a big wedge of cash sitting in escrow in Bangkok. This way a load of money gets out of Iran to do with what they like at a time, when getting money out of Iran might not have been the easiest thing in the world to do.

[Cantankerous]

Som nam naa you cheating slag!!! Another red cheat where he belongs!!

Aye it's only reds who are corrupt... Keep the blinkers on.

[peecee]

6 years and 12000 baht, bit on the light side financially, should have cleaned out his bank account but at least he was given jail. Lets hope this continues to all the other scammers that the ptp allowed to get away.

Probably spend the rest of his life on bail appealing it!

[Cuchulainn]

Som nam naa you cheating slag!!! Another red cheat where he belongs!!

Aye it's only reds who are corrupt... Keep the blinkers on.

And when, exactly, did I say that?

[EyesWideOpen]

Corruption perception for Thailand. WandaSloan is correct , it would appear that corruption increased during the rule of Surayud ( 2006 to 2008) . Interesting that under Thaksin ( 2001 to 2005) corruption first increased, and then decreased....Still fairly even under Abbisit. Then in

2011 YIngluck took over, and you can clearly see the result. It is interesting to see corruption

over a time span and relate it to the people in charge. I think every speech I have seen given

by a Thai national politician has a segment about stopping corruption. And of course they

never do.

And yes , am well aware this guy's crime was from 2007. Am thinking that with all the anger over the rice scam, he just sort of got thrown in the frying pan. As he was an aide to Thaksin, perhaps the fruit did not fall far from the tree.....

Am still a bit confused over the crime. Did he promise to sell the rice to Iran, and ended up selling

it to another country ? That would seem to be a fairly modest crime, a broken contract. Or did he

in fact get payment for the rice, not deliver, and simply sell it to another country thus stealing it?

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thailands-corruption-index-sinks/

"Thailand ranks 102nd out of 177 countries in the 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, falling from 88th in 2012."

Edited June 25, 2014 by EyesWideOpen

[Thai at Heart]

Corruption perception for Thailand. WandaSloan is correct , it would appear that corruption increased during the rule of Surayud ( 2006 to 2008) . Interesting that under Thaksin ( 2001 to 2005) corruption first increased, and then decreased....Still fairly even under Abbisit. Then in

2011 YIngluck took over, and you can clearly see the result. It is interesting to see corruption

over a time span and relate it to the people in charge. I think every speech I have seen given

by a Thai national politician has a segment about stopping corruption. And of course they

never do.

And yes , am well aware this guy's crime was from 2007. Am thinking that with all the anger over the rice scam, he just sort of got thrown in the frying pan. As he was an aide to Thaksin, perhaps the fruit did not fall far from the tree.....

Am still a bit confused over the crime. Did he promise to sell the rice to Iran, and ended up selling

it to another country ? That would seem to be a fairly modest crime, a broken contract. Or did he

in fact get payment for the rice, not deliver, and simply sell it to another country thus stealing it?

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thailands-corruption-index-sinks/

"Thailand ranks 102nd out of 177 countries in the 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, falling from 88th in 2012."

I think he facilitated a load of money getting paid out of Iran and into Thailand for a clip.

And a load of people got pissed off that he made all this wonga using supposedly government rice. He never got 200mn, he just produced invoices that allowed 200mn to be moved into Thailand.

A bunch of Iranians probably got the lions share. Note the last year of crack downs on money laundering and now trafficking.

This bloke is probably being thrown under a bus for sanctions busting, but no one wants to say so.

[oldsailor35]

He will be the first of many many people to face justice for their part in

the rice scam. I never thought this day would come, I am happy beyond words.

Prayuth has done more for this country in one month than the " leaders"

have done in twenty years .But I guess when all your time is spent in

figuring out new ways to loot money from the government, must not be

a lot of time left over in help improve the lives of the common people...

Next up ??? The big fish, Yingluck.... Too bad Thaksin is beyond

the reach of the Thai courts, as I believe he is the one that set the

whole scam up.

The really "big fish" in this countries corruption has got to be Suthep.

[oldsailor35]

6 years and 12000 baht, bit on the light side financially, should have cleaned out his bank account but at least he was given jail. Lets hope this continues to all the other scammers that the ptp allowed to get away.

But someone says that he is out on bail ! so what was the point of charging him in the first place, this is all a publicity farce. Looks a bit like the "Red Bull" farce.

Edited June 25, 2014 by oldsailor35

[oldsailor35]

How on earth did he think he'd get away with this? Dumber than a sack of rocks.

Maybe because Thaksin told him by the time any one found out he would be back in power and have any charges swept under the carpet.

Hopefully his next contract will be one on Thaksin

It makes me shudder to see so many weak minded, obviously brain washed, people here in TV who blame just about everything on Thaksin. Its as though the rest of Thai business population are really down to earth honest business people whose lives are tarnished by Thaksin alone. These weak minded people who want to blame everything on Thaksin really only succeed in making themselves look what they are, utter fools of no common sense. Thaksin is long gone now , but they just cannot help themselves, they really need to be pitied as they do not impress anyone anymore. Bless em !

[rubl]

6 years and 12000 baht, bit on the light side financially, should have cleaned out his bank account but at least he was given jail. Lets hope this continues to all the other scammers that the ptp allowed to get away.

But someone says that he is out on bail ! so what was the point of charging him in the first place, this is all a publicity farce. Looks a bit like the "Red Bull" farce.

I fail to see why a conviction followed by free on bail makes people wonder why this chap was charged in the first place. All within the law, you know. Now I agree that Thai law may need some adjustment to guarantee that the theoretical "equal by law" is also practically "equal by law".

If you follow your line of thought, one may wonder why go after Ms. Yingluck for negligence

Anyway I see no reason why this chap who seems to be guilty shouldn't be charged. That's part of the legal process. Prosecution to try to prove him guilty, defense to try to prove him innocent, or at least try to provide sufficient information to cast doubt on guilt.

[EyesWideOpen]

How on earth did he think he'd get away with this? Dumber than a sack of rocks.

Maybe because Thaksin told him by the time any one found out he would be back in power and have any charges swept under the carpet.

Hopefully his next contract will be one on Thaksin

It makes me shudder to see so many weak minded, obviously brain washed, people here in TV who blame just about everything on Thaksin. Its as though the rest of Thai business population are really down to earth honest business people whose lives are tarnished by Thaksin alone. These weak minded people who want to blame everything on Thaksin really only succeed in making themselves look what they are, utter fools of no common sense. Thaksin is long gone now , but they just cannot help themselves, they really need to be pitied as they do not impress anyone anymore. Bless em !

Wake up. Thaksin may be gone, but he still had an iron grip on the country through his

caddy Yingluck. Does " Thaksin thinks, PTP acts" ring any bells for you ? Plus stacking

in cronies and relatives in positions of power. Well, he had power until Prayuth took

over....... :-) There are no saints in Thailand, so just a matter of choosing the devil

who seems a bit better mannered.

Side note, thanks for the blessing !!! But a bit sad to read that my intense dislike

of Thaksin will class me in with the weak minded and brainwashed. 14 years of living here,

reading Thai endless news stories, all for naught... :-(

Edited June 25, 2014 by EyesWideOpen

[rubl]

How on earth did he think he'd get away with this? Dumber than a sack of rocks.

Maybe because Thaksin told him by the time any one found out he would be back in power and have any charges swept under the carpet.

Hopefully his next contract will be one on Thaksin

It makes me shudder to see so many weak minded, obviously brain washed, people here in TV who blame just about everything on Thaksin. Its as though the rest of Thai business population are really down to earth honest business people whose lives are tarnished by Thaksin alone. These weak minded people who want to blame everything on Thaksin really only succeed in making themselves look what they are, utter fools of no common sense. Thaksin is long gone now , but they just cannot help themselves, they really need to be pitied as they do not impress anyone anymore. Bless em !

Wake up. Thaksin may be gone, but he still had an iron grip on the country through his

caddy Yingluck. Does " Thaksin thinks, PTP acts" ring any bells for you ? Plus stacking

in cronies and relatives in positions of power. Well, he had power until Prayuth took

over....... :-) There are no saints in Thailand, so just a matter of choosing the devil

who seems a bit better mannered.

Side note, thanks for the blessing !!! But a bit sad to read that my intense dislike

of Thaksin will class me in with the weak minded and brainwashed. 14 years of living here,

reading Thai endless news stories, all for naught... :-(

Reading endless Thai news stories for 14 years may make you weak minded and cause a state similar to being brainwashed

After 20 years in Bangkok I'm not sure I'm qualified to give much objective answer to that question. Mind you now watching 'Iron Chef" on channel7 definitively makes me hungry for more. Food that is, not soaps, aides or THaksin.

[EyesWideOpen]

It makes me shudder to see so many weak minded, obviously brain washed, people here in TV who blame just about everything on Thaksin. Its as though the rest of Thai business population are really down to earth honest business people whose lives are tarnished by Thaksin alone. These weak minded people who want to blame everything on Thaksin really only succeed in making themselves look what they are, utter fools of no common sense. Thaksin is long gone now , but they just cannot help themselves, they really need to be pitied as they do not impress anyone anymore. Bless em !

Wake up. Thaksin may be gone, but he still had an iron grip on the country through his

caddy Yingluck. Does " Thaksin thinks, PTP acts" ring any bells for you ? Plus stacking

in cronies and relatives in positions of power. Well, he had power until Prayuth took

over....... :-) There are no saints in Thailand, so just a matter of choosing the devil

who seems a bit better mannered.

Side note, thanks for the blessing !!! But a bit sad to read that my intense dislike

of Thaksin will class me in with the weak minded and brainwashed. 14 years of living here,

reading Thai endless news stories, all for naught... :-(

Reading endless Thai news stories for 14 years may make you weak minded and cause a state similar to being brainwashed

After 20 years in Bangkok I'm not sure I'm qualified to give much objective answer to that question. Mind you now watching 'Iron Chef" on channel7 definitively makes me hungry for more. Food that is, not soaps, aides or THaksin.

Haha thanks Uncle. OK I will focus more on watching Game of Thrones. Come to think of it,

isn't that what they do here ? Groups fighting for political and financial power ?? :-)

[tabs]

Sia Pieng was earlier revealed by former Democrat MP Warong Dechgitvigrom as the key man behind the rice-pledging scheme, who had travelled to China several times with Thaksin.

[tabs]

Interesting to read this morning that this scrote is also closely linked to one Siam Indica. Keen readers of TVF will remember this company as it is owned by amart rougists Arisman and his wife and detailed documents of their rice plundering were shown in parliament. The link between the desert rat and Apichat is becoming ever more clear. I'm sure it was only yesterday I was reading frantic denials this is "nothing to do with" Thaksin. LOL

There are still some people unable to separate this case, which was about a fraudulent activity that took place in 2007 to that of the Now defunct Rice scheme.

It was NOTHING to do with the now defunct Yingluck scheme,

refer to previous news:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/737215-thaksin-aide-jailed-for-rice-fraud/page-6#entry8025174

AND additional news:

The trader is widely believed to be the head of Siam Indica, a rice trading company at the address previously used by President Agri.

Siam Indica was investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) as part of a probe into corruption in a rice intervention scheme run by the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of Thaksin, from 2011.

She was removed by the Constitutional Court for abuse of power in May and still faces separate charges of dereliction of duty relating to the intervention programme.

Reuters News

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/asia/289167/thai-court-jails-tycoon-for-rice-embezzlement

[German Viking]

Made a deal with Iran and then sold it to another country?

Pretty damned dumb and six years and THB12000 fine seems very light.

Stupidity alone should qualify for 10 years + a fine in the millions? what am I missing?

The court said the defendant violated the contract signed with the Commerce Ministry and embezzled the rice after his company sold the 20,000 tonnes of rice, which his company was obligated to deliver to Iran, to another country.

Im not sure but think this is possibly one reason for a low fine and or sentence.

I don't see any mention of personal fraud or stealing funds here its all about the company. Essentially what seems to be alluded to is this guys company breached the government sales allocation and sold it instead to another country. Hes the MD so probably on the hook.

Now the question is this, did he and the company bank a payment from Iran or the gov and THEN sell the rice on to another country thereby selling it twice... OR did the company just sell it to another for some other reason ( probably better profit ) having the rice allocated in its stock from the government and leave the government with the sale to Iran still incomplete ? has Iran actually paid as yet or is it just the contract breached with no delivery as yet but no payments up front ? ...

Details are thin and its not clear if this was a personal gain and crime or as the Managing Director for his company being directly liable for charges brought ?

Since there is no mention of assets of his frozen and seems to be pointing at the company for the mis sale im assuming hes on the hook for what his company was doing rather than his own net personal gain. Or youd expect asset freezes and seizures. Thats not to say he wouldnt have been syphoning the cash off in the future though and probably would have.

And hes not in jail but on bail and appealing.

i do wish Thai reporters knew how to research a story better.

In general is a CEO responsible for everything what going on is the company, does'nt matter he was involved or not.

The risk of responsibility is a big part of their salaries

[Morch]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Interesting to read this morning that this scrote is also closely linked to one Siam Indica. Keen readers of TVF will remember this company as it is owned by amart rougists Arisman and his wife and detailed documents of their rice plundering were shown in parliament. The link between the desert rat and Apichat is becoming ever more clear. I'm sure it was only yesterday I was reading frantic denials this is "nothing to do with" Thaksin. LOL

There are still some people unable to separate this case, which was about a fraudulent activity that took place in 2007 to that of the Now defunct Rice scheme.

It was NOTHING to do with the now defunct Yingluck scheme,

refer to previous news:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/737215-thaksin-aide-jailed-for-rice-fraud/page-6#entry8025174

AND additional news:


The trader is widely believed to be the head of Siam Indica, a rice trading company at the address previously used by President Agri.

Siam Indica was investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) as part of a probe into corruption in a rice intervention scheme run by the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of Thaksin, from 2011.

She was removed by the Constitutional Court for abuse of power in May and still faces separate charges of dereliction of duty relating to the intervention programme.

Reuters News
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/asia/289167/thai-court-jails-tycoon-for-rice-embezzlement

I believe Fat Haggis and others meant only that the case mentioned in the OP is not directly connected with the PTP rice scam.

The Siam Indica thing is a later case, involving the same person and does have to do with the PTP rice scam.

Hopefully the authorities can nail him for both cases, and wouldn't be surprised if he got other skeletons in his closet.