All I know is the story of Ample Rich is just amazing, and here are reasons why it should somehow be included in the "Guinness World Records":

1) It was set up for just US$1 (Bt34.98) in March 1999. Not that strange if we consider the fact that many firms were registered at dirt-cheap prices, not to mention those born in the obscure British Virgin Islands. Yet I couldn't help thinking of the poor lads in my neighbourhood who needed Bt3,000 to start a somtam-kai yang business. And the damage that "one dollar" has caused to the local and world economy is still accumulating.

2) It was registered by Thaksin Shinawatra. Again, not that strange if he hadn't "sold" "his own" Shin Corp stock to this new company at Bt10 a share for a total "transaction" of Bt329 million in June of that same year. The best part was that Ample Rich Investment "borrowed" the sum from his wife to "buy" the shares. The loan hasn't been repaid, as far as we know.

3) We can also put it this way: Khunying Pojaman practically lent money to a company set up by her husband to buy shares from her own company.

4) Why would one do that? Thaksin explained at the time of the asset-concealment scandal that he was preparing to make inroads into Nasdaq. That seemingly honest ambition makes it all the more puzzling as to why he failed to report this part of his assets while holding political office around the time of those transactions.

5) In December 2000, Thaksin, rocked by the assets-concealment inquiry, was said to have "sold" Ample Rich to his son, Panthongtae, for $1. Not that strange for obvious reasons, but the whole picture was getting a bit intriguing: a young man had taken over a company his dad founded, which bought shares from the boy's parents in a transaction funded by money borrowed from the mother.

6) In August 2001, splitting par value of Shin shares meant Ample Rich was holding 329.2 million shares (from 32.92 million shares). No Nasdaq activities were documented, but that wasn't that unnatural. The Shinawatras were not the ones acting suspiciously this time around, but rather the Anti-Money Laundering Organisation, which paid zero attention to any Ample Rich development whatsoever and would soon after launch a serious probe into the bank accounts of several senior journalists and publishers of newspapers critical of Thaksin.

7) Thaksin's daughter, Pinthongta, became an Ample Rich co-owner after buying a - yes - $1 Ample Rich share from brother Panthongtae in May 2005 after he had increased its registered capital to $5 (five shares). They owned 164.6 million Shin shares each.

8) The 329.2 million Shin shares went home on January 20, 2006. Ample Rich "sold" the shares to its "owners", Panthongtae and Pinthongta, for Bt1 apiece. Now, the Shinawatra youngsters practically bought their own shares from a company set up by their father which borrowed from their mother to buy the shares from her own company. Are you still with me?

9) Went home but not for long. Three days later, the 329.2 million Shin shares headed straight into the hands of Temasek, at Bt49.25 apiece. Clean as a weasel. The Shinawatras argued that no tax had to be paid, because Ample Rich was "not making any profit", whereas Panthongtae and Pinthongta "did not make profit" either at the point of transaction. When the Shinawatra siblings did make a profit, their defence said, it was a tax-free situation, because they sold the shares to Temasek as individuals in the stock market.

10) Let's put it this way: Panthongtae and Pinthongta the Ample Rich owners could not sell directly to Temasek because they would have been taxed for about Bt2.3 billion. They had to sell the shares to Panthongtae and Pinthongta the individuals, who could "park" the shares (bought from their mother's company with money borrowed from her) and then sell them to the Singaporeans.

11) Another technicality was the Shinawatras' claim that the share transfer between Panthongtae and Pinthongta the Ample Rich owners and Panthongtae and Pinthongta the individuals took place in Singapore. While that could back their no-tax argument, the assets investigators insisted the transfer was "completed" in Thailand, when the global trotting Shin stocks were officially parked at the Shares Depository Centre here.

(The assets investigators also decided that the January 20, 2006, transfer was taxable, because Thai law states that company executives who receive shares from their firms must be taxed.)

12) Following Monday's ruling by assets investigators, two youngsters who paid a total of $2 to "buy" an offshore company now face up to Bt10 billion in taxes. Ample Rich, which cost $1 to set up, has also wrecked a country's politics, caused unprecedented national and global divides and soured bilateral relations. The firm is still owned by Panthongtae and Pinthongta and still hasn't paid the debt owed their mother, who reportedly lent it money to practically buy her own company's shares.

Tulsathit Taptim