Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's son Panthongtae has been slapped with a fine of Bt5.98 million for violating the securities law, a judgement which closes another episode of the trouble facing the Shinawatra clan following their sell-off of Shin Corp Plc.

The amount is significantly lower than expected. It was earlier estimated that for the failure to report the change in his shareholding in Shin Corp he would face about Bt20 million in penalties.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the fine is inclusive of the penalty for his failure to launch the mandatory tender when his shareholding in the telecom holding company exceeded 25 per cent.

Speaking at an eagerly anticipated press conference yesterday, SEC deputy secretary-general Prasong Vinaiphat said that this had been the decision of the three-member committee in charge of setting penalties in such cases.

The committee operates independently from the SEC.

"Panthongtae has undertaken in writing to abide by the judgement," he said.

With the Shin Corp share sale to Singapore's Temasek Holdings part of the current political tension, Prasong said, the SEC has done its best to handle the case with transparency and fairness.

"It would not have been fair for the SEC to approach the case emotionally. There must be common rules for all cases.

"The SEC, while aware of social pressure, had to ignore it. We had to be fair, judging not by the name  Panthongtae but by his activities. The fine of Bt5.98 million may seem low compared to the total Shin share sale of Bt73 billion, but we needed to stick to the events in question," Prasong said when asked by reporters about social pressure on the case.

According to Prasong, the committee decided the fine with regard to three violations by Panthongtae of the Securities and Exchange Act BE 2535.

Two were against Article 246 with Panthongtae failing to report his shareholding in Shin Corp for 3,197 days. He was fined Bt3.32 million for this, a general fine of Bt127,500 plus Bt1,000 for each day in violation.

The other violation was against Article 247, for failure to tender for Shin shares for 1,966 days, for which he was fined Bt2.66 million, a basic Bt200,000 plus Bt1,250 a day.

Both articles carry a maximum fine of Bt500,000 plus a maximum of Bt10,000 a day.

The three-member committee consists of Samart Buranawatanachoke, assistant governor of the Bank of Thailand, Somchai Sujjapongse, deputy director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office, and Pol General Amnouy Phetsiri, deputy commissioner of the Royal Thai Police.

Prasong emphasised that they were members of long standing: "It was not a special committee appointed for this case."

The SEC, he said, has to accept the judgement of the committee.

"The SEC has no right of dissent," he said.

Prasong said the SEC found the penalties to be consistent with precedent.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation