Newly released Chonsawat faces more legal problems

By ATTAYUTH BOOTSRIPOOM
THE NATION

 

Chonsawat Asavahame

 

RELEASED FROM jail last August, Chonsawat Asavahame now looks set to plunge into another round of legal trouble.

 

This time it is not about electoral fraud, which sent him to jail a few years ago, but about alleged abuse of authority. 

 

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) ruled this week that there are grounds to conclude Chonsawat violated laws in signing a Bt128 million garbage-collection service contract during his term as the mayor of the Samut Prakan Municipality. “The contract was signed in 2003 despite caution from the Local Administration Department,” NACC secretary-general Sansern Poljieak said this week. 

 

The guilty ruling from the NACC is another serious blow to the Asavahames family that was once very famous and influential in Thailand.

Chonsawat’s father, Vatana Asavahame, was once widely known as the “Godfather of Pak Nam” who had influence in the business and political worlds. 

 

It is widely believed that Vatana’s business empire was worth more than Bt10 billion, covering the agriculture, property and oil sectors.

 

In the political field, Vatana was a giant. He had been a 10-time MP of Samut Prakan province and in 1976, he won the post of deputy industry minister. In 1988, 1990, and 1997, he was appointed interior minister and also served as a PM’s Office minister. 

 

In his political portfolio, Vatana was a former deputy leader of the Chart Thai Party, a former leader of the Rassadorn Party, and the chair of the Puea Pandin Party. Vatana has three sons: Piboon, Poonphon and Chonsawat. 

 

The eldest son, Piboon, has maintained a low profile. Staying out of politics, he has been in charge of the family businesses. 

 

Poonphon, who died of heart failure in 2015, jumped into politics but his career was doomed after the Constitutional Court ruled in 2004 that he submitted a false asset declaration and slapped him with a five-year political ban. 

 

Four years later, Vatana himself received a guilty verdict over corruption in the Klong Dan wastewater treatment project. The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division of Persons Holding Political Positions sentenced Vatana to 10 years in jail in absentia on August 18, 2008, after he went on the run. Vatana has never been seen in Thailand since then.

 

It is believed that Vatana is living a comfortable life overseas. When Chonsawat dated a famous actress, Janie Tienphosuwan, a picture showed the couple meeting Vatana in Macau. 

 

Of Vatana’s three sons, Chonsawat has received the most media attention, partly because he dated several female stars. He married two of them but is now a divorcee.

 

In politics, Chonsawat won several local elections in Samut Prakan. But on August 4, 2015, he was convicted of electoral fraud and sentenced to jail. 

 

Chonsawat’s ordeal did not end when he completed his jail term last year. The NACC is now pursuing an abuse-of-authority case against him over the Bt128 million garbage-collection service contract. 

 

There is also an investigation into Chonsawat’s alleged wrongdoing during his term as president of the Samut Prakan Provincial Administrative Organisation. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30318959

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-24

sounds like he would make a great character witness for yingluck, the family seems to have all the right abilities on par with her own

"..partly because he dated several female stars. He married two of them but is now a divorcee. "

The last one divorced  him because of his loving and caring attitude  towards her. I  remember  pics of her full of bruises all over and several incidents including drunk driving and violent  acts.  Lovely chap he is. Hope he rots in jail for a long time.

A really class act. I remember when the engagement was announced, he produced a medical certificate to show his fiance wasn't pregnant. Lucky her.

Ahhh...chip of the old block...

Looks lik a nce guy, has he spent enough time in jail?

  Geezer