An ex-politician in BBC scandal jailed 155 years

BANGKOK: -- A former member of the now disbanded “Goup of 16” political group was today sentenced to 155 years imprisonment, fined 31 million baht and ordered to pay 732 million baht in compensation for damages in connection with the Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BBC) fraud.

The Criminal Court found the defendant, Mr Chattawat or Veerapol Muktamara, guilty of assisting MrKrirkkiat Chalechandra, the late managing director of BBC, in cheating the bank by granting loans without proper guarantee to politicians of the so-called “Group of 16” causing massive damages to the bank.

The massive fraud by the bank management led to the collapse of the bank in 1996 before the “tom yum kung” financial crisis one year afterward.

Two key players of the embezzlement case MrKrirkkiat and Indian financier, RakeshSaxena, were the subject of investigation and court trials. Mr Krirkkiat who was convicted to long prison terms died of cancer in 2012 whereas Mr Saxena is serving a ten-year jail term.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/ex-politician-bbc-scandal-jailed-155-years

-- Thai PBS 2014-12-01

What a nonsense sentence!!

The brain in the scam Mr Saxena sentenced to 10 years , and one of the underlings gets 155 years??

Welcome to the Thai juridical lottery!

Its ok though! He will be out on bond tomorrow while he waits for a new government to be voted in

Its ok though! He will be out on bond tomorrow while he waits for a new government to be voted in

What would be bail wouldn't it, plus return of passport.

Goup of 16? Who were the 15 others? 155 years hope he serves out all his sentence.

White collar crimes are severely under-punished in the west. Some banksters in the U.S. should have got sentences like that after 2007.

Instead they became lobbyists.

One of the fraudsters went as far, as being part of the administration.

Insane.

This sentence sounds serious...after the appeals run their course he might end up having to spend a couple years in prison and pay a small fine.

Goup of 16? Who were the 15 others? 155 years hope he serves out all his sentence.

Most of the others were highranking politicians.

If justice was served, the new racingtrack outside Buriram would never have been build.

If justice was served, the fake monk would be wearing a different design of orange!!

Saxena only got 10 years, because he cooperated aka kept his mouth shut!!

He'll probably get parole . . . when he's 175 years old.

The most destructive act of corruption in Thai history. Of course some people were beneficiaries. Must be something to do with Thaksin, surely.

He'll probably get parole . . . when he's 175 years old.

Some people have robbed Thailand blind, not just the Shinawatra's and cronies, and hope the such like get stripped of all the wealth and serve long prison sentences, but some how I do not see this guy doing more than 155 weeks...

White collar crimes are severely under-punished in the west. Some banksters in the U.S. should have got sentences like that after 2007.

Instead they became lobbyists.

Some became lobbyists but the real slime balls became cabinet members and the slimiest of all sitting atop the federal reserve.

I'd say the Thais did pretty good in comparison.

This sentence sounds serious...after the appeals run their course he might end up having to spend a couple years in prison and pay a small fine.

However many years they may spend in the can...it will be a whole lot more than the fat cats at Lehman Bros. who essentially did the same thing for a lot more money and walked...whoops...rode free in chauffeured limousines.

This was a long time before Thaksin became powerful. Saxena was the organ grinder. Where is he in jail?

Last I heard he was under house arrest in Whistler, Canada.

Hmmm.....i'm sure the Burmese must have been behind this !

Sigh,

The blaming the Burmese for everything comment on Thai Visa got boring months ago.

White collar crimes are severely under-punished in the west. Some banksters in the U.S. should have got sentences like that after 2007.

Instead they became lobbyists.

Some became lobbyists but the real slime balls became cabinet members and the slimiest of all sitting atop the federal reserve.

I'd say the Thais did pretty good in comparison.

The list

Makes for interesting reading....

What a nonsense sentence!!

The brain in the scam Mr Saxena sentenced to 10 years , and one of the underlings gets 155 years??

Welcome to the Thai juridical lottery!

He was charged with 31 different offences, that's why, all perfectly logical. The sentence is reduced automatically though to 20 years, the maximum under Thai law, so he got off comparitively lightly.

This was a long time before Thaksin became powerful. Saxena was the organ grinder. Where is he in jail?

Last I heard he was under house arrest in Whistler, Canada.

Couldn't you be bothered to read to the end of the OP? Read it and you'll be able to answer your own question.

Goup of 16? Who were the 15 others? 155 years hope he serves out all his sentence.

You hope he serves 155 years ? For a white collar crime of which he was not the ringleader ???

What he has done is probably considered standard practice in the banking world, he's no different to hundreds of other bankers except he was unfortunate enough to be made an example of in a court.

I wonder if he will be counting the days of on his prison cell wall and will be delighted after 155 years to get released and out for a refreshing Leo at a bargain price of 1000000 Baht a bottle but its a big one .

This and all the stories from past twenty years makes me wonder just how far Thailand might be ahead if politics was just a little bit cleaner. It's hard for me to comprehend the rampant and blatant theft of money taken out of the system by so called political leaders.

While anyone is entitled to an opinion, there may be a lack of legal credentials to practice in Thailand by those with such earnest leanings.

I'm not perfect and I have ample company.

He'll probably get parole . . . when he's 175 years old.

Or get it reduced too 100 years on an appeal,

This was a long time before Thaksin became powerful. Saxena was the organ grinder. Where is he in jail?

Last I heard he was under house arrest in Whistler, Canada.

Couldn't you be bothered to read to the end of the OP? Read it and you'll be able to answer your own question.

Did YOU read it? And, did you read ATF's post correctly?

All the OP article says is that he is in jail for 10 years. ATF asks "Where is he in jail?" which is not specified in the OP.

ATF- he finally lost all appeals in Canada and was repatriated to Thailand on 31 October 2009.

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Baines+Saxena+guilty+massive+fraud+jailed+years/6754624/story.html

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/561118-former-bbc-adviser-rakesh-saxena-gets-10-year-prison-sentence/

He is incarcerated in Thailand now - in the Thaivisa thread above: " He was never granted bail since being extradited, but was put behind bars at the maximum-security Bangkok Remand Prison."

Probably nowhere near as plush as his house arrest in Canada.

What a nonsense sentence!!

The brain in the scam Mr Saxena sentenced to 10 years , and one of the underlings gets 155 years??

Welcome to the Thai juridical lottery!

Don't be so bloody naive. Anyone can buy their way out of this country and it's attendant troubles here. Christ. Some of you

A nonsense post has been removed as well as the replies.

A lot of bankers in the West, given knuckle-rapping fines for money laundering, market rigging, mis-selling and a host of other offences that cost thousands of people their savings, homes and in some cases their lives, must be thanking their lucky stars they don't live in Thailand.

Personally, I wish they did and got punishments to fit the crime, not fines they could pass on to their customers..

Typical of US-style excessive sentencing, and of the contempt courts the world over manage to demonstrate when it comes to lives versus money.

Ohh THAT BBC