Published on January 31, 2005

An outspoken businessman who claimed to have behind-the-scenes information about the devaluation of the baht in 1997 said yesterday that he was among local businesspeople persuaded by billionaire investor George Soros to initiate an attack on the Thai currency that led to its devaluation.

Prachai Leophairatana,

the chief executive of Thai Petrochemical Industry

Plc (TPI), said that while a number of wealthy businessmen joined in the fund set up in early 1997 to trade Thai baht and US dollars, he opted out “because I thought it was not worth the damage to the country”.

He said Soros, who is president of the Soros Fund Management and chairman of the Open Society Institute, contacted him and other businessmen through a finance company. Prachai said Soros’s goal was to make profits from the venture.

The TPI founder told reporters assembled at a press conference at the Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel yesterday that he had decided to break his silence about the matter after his name was mentioned

in a book written by Deputy

Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh’s aide, Panthep Phuaphongphand.

The controversial book, based on then-prime minister Chavalit’s recollection of the 1997 financial crisis, is titled “The 2540 Confidential Report: The Truth That Has Been Concealed for a Long Time.”

Chavalit’s government in July 1997 decided to float the baht in response to worsening economic conditions at the beginning of the Asian financial crisis.

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