Supreme Court jails pair for 5 years each for Suvarnabhumi bid rigging

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COURT
Supreme Court jails pair for 5 years each for Suvarnabhumi bid rigging
THE NATION


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BANGKOK: -- THE SUPREME COURT yesterday handed down five-year jail terms to two former top executives of New Bangkok International Airport for rigging bids on the Suvarnabhumi Airport project back in 1996.

Overturning the Appeals Court's acquittal of Priti Hetrakul, then managing director, and his deputy at the time Pramual Hutasing, the Supreme Court found that the pair violated the law by inflating the reference price and inflicted huge damage on their organisation and the public.

The median bidding price to grade the airport construction site was raised from Bt10.86 billion to Bt12.20 billion.

Neither man was present at yesterday's sentencing and arrest warrants were issued for them.

The statute of limitations in enforcing the punishment is 10 years.

The Supreme Court commuted the jail term for Pramual to three years and four months in light of his helpful cooperation.

According to prosecutors and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which filed the case in November 2009, |both executives abused their authority when they invited bids on September 20, 1996, for landfills and site preparation.

Conspiracy to change median price

Priti appointed his deputy Pramual and six others to the bidding committee.

However, both Priti and Pramual from November 27-29 of that year conspired to change the median price significantly by producing a new document to replace the original one.

The six other committee members were not informed of the change.

In March 2011, the initial court ruled that both were guilty of the charges that they violated the law governing state officials' conduct.

Each defendant was given a five-year jail term, but the Appeals Court acquitted both defendants in 2013.

The prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court, which said there was solid evidence from the NACC that Priti played a role in this corrupt practice and that Pramual, as chairman of the bidding committee, along with Priti changed the terms of reference, even though the committee agreed to award the multibillion-baht contract to Italian Thai Development, which quoted Bt11.9 billion.

The grading contract was a major component of the Suvarnabhumi project. The new airport was opened in 2006.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Supreme-Court-jails-pair-for-5-years-each-for-Suva-30272680.html

-- The Nation 2015-11-11

[smutcakes]

So after nigh on 20 years with untold amount of monies spent on lawyers etc finally a decision is made, yet no one head the foresight to ensure that the accused were present.

How many more years will it take to apprehend them, if ever? Perhaps they had been given the heads up already about the outcome, and in a nice little middle finger to everyone flew out of the very same airport.

[NongKhaiKid]

Two more members of the Fugitive Thais Club.

i and others have asked so many times if situations like this are really all down to incompetence and a total lack of professionalism ?

[arthurboy]

Deal done. Money paid. Long gone.

And no mention of getting the money back, asset seizure etc.

TIT.

[trogers]

Thai justice in action...and they are scratching their heads on how to fight against corruption...

[nidieunimaitre]

QUOTES:

Neither man was present at yesterday's sentencing and arrest warrants were issued for them.

The Supreme Court commuted the jail term for Pramual to three years and four months in light of his helpful cooperation.

???

[NongKhaiKid]

QUOTES:

Neither man was present at yesterday's sentencing and arrest warrants were issued for them.

The Supreme Court commuted the jail term for Pramual to three years and four months in light of his helpful cooperation.

???

Maybe the cooperation was pissing off and not appearing in court so now everybody's job is so much easier as no one will bother tracking them down !

[ezzra]

Tell the cops to go see the movie Catch me if you can... I'm here, I'm there. I'm everywhere,

but not in Thailand....

[whatproblem]

So they got away with a billion baht

[whatproblem]

So a Dutch guy gets 103 years for ,,,,,,,,what ? And the Thai guy for costing the tax payer more than 1 1/2 billion baht gets 5 years and a no show ,wow !

[hansgruber]

QUOTES:

Neither man was present at yesterday's sentencing and arrest warrants were issued for them.

The Supreme Court commuted the jail term for Pramual to three years and four months in light of his helpful cooperation.

???

I'd do 3 years and 4 months jail for a few billion baht.

Not sure why they run away from such leniency.

[Estrada]

I have been involved with this project and can tell you that these are only the fall guys. The PM at that time was Banharn Silpa-Archa whose nickname is "Slippery Eel".

[nidieunimaitre]

So they got away with a billion baht

....and undoubtedly bought a lot of tea.

[fred Kubasa]

Watch the 6 o'clock news for further "COMMUTATIONS OF THESE SENTENCES" !

[EnglishJohn]

I have been involved with this project and can tell you that these are only the fall guys. The PM at that time was Banharn Silpa-Archa whose nickname is "Slippery Eel".

.. and who, in 2008, finally announced he was splitting away from any affiliation with Thaksin because of the scandalous amount of corruption.

A little bit too late Mr Banham.

[lujanit]

Youyee gets 15 years for possession of 250 milligrams of cocaine and this pair get 5 years for embezzling well in excess of 1 million baht. Face it, the Thai justice is just plain broken. If Prayut wants to do something meaningful he should reform the criminal justice system. Yet TIT nothing will happen. Sure a few scapegoats will go to jail but the power and the money will never see the inside of a cell.

[chilli42]

I am more inclined to be massively disappointed in this rather than elated at Thailands progress in fighting corruption. If something as small as this has taken so long and even had to go to the Supreme Court (not to mention the relative slap on the wrist sentence) then the likelihood that corruption will be aggressively pursued and rooted out is vanishingly tiny.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

Back when the airport was being built I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman from one of the top computer companies.

He was working on the system at the air traffic control tower as he was awarded that project.

He told me how much he had to pay under the table to win the deal. I can't remember the exact amount now but it was a massive amount, at least hundreds of millions of baht.

He told me he had to give the money directly to a certain, very senior politicians sister.

Just sayin.

[halloween]

Hmmmm...........guilty in March 2011, innocent in 2013, guilty again in 2015. with one defendant getting a reduced sentence for "co-operation". A cynical person might suspect political interference with the courts, and its not hard to decide on which verdict.

[clockman]

Justice is a distant bell, rarely heard in Thailand!

[Chicog]

And who was it who paid the bribe to get the business in the end?

[HerbalEd]

Two down and many hundreds more to go.

[bangon04]

"Neither man was present at yesterday's sentencing and arrest warrants were issued for them.

The statute of limitations in enforcing the punishment is 10 years."

?? 10 years from today? or 10 years from the original conviction? Or 10 years from the date of the crime?

[cookee68]

This is the Thai justice system, it is a joke, none of them will ever see a prison, thats why none of them bothered to turn up at court, it is just words, which Thailand are great at

[gemguy]

OK...But they seldom if ever provide the juicy details concerning the most interesting aspect of these never ending, all too rampant corruption stories that are perpetrated by successive government officials to the point of ad nauseam while seemingly never providing the information about:

HOW MUCH DID THE LOW LIFES STEAL????.....approximately, would be good enough.

Cheers

[tomacht8]

Neither man was present at yesterday's sentencing and arrest warrants were issued for them.

These high-grade criminals steal more than 1.000 million baht and run freely around for years.
The judiciary and the enforcement of the law are a joke here.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I am more inclined to be massively disappointed in this rather than elated at Thailands progress in fighting corruption. If something as small as this has taken so long and even had to go to the Supreme Court (not to mention the relative slap on the wrist sentence) then the likelihood that corruption will be aggressively pursued and rooted out is vanishingly tiny.

Apart from the massive delay in finally bringing this case to closure, I noticed there's an interesting similarity here between this case and the recent Santika nightclub fire ruling from the Supreme Court (that also involved sentencing those accused to jail).

In this case and the Santika one, the original lower court verdicts were guilty, then the Appeals Courts in each case reversed those verdicts to acquittals, and then ultimately the Supreme Court reinstated (somewhat) the original lower court rulings of guilty.

What does it say about the Thai justice system when cases can so easily go from guilty, to not guilty, then back to guilty again??? Especially when the various courts are all hearing/reviewing the same evidence in each case...