The price tag for Manchester City is about £100 million, or Bt7 billion. So, people are curious also to know where he will dig his hand in to produce the money.

Yes, he has the money. But from where will he get it? Because his assets are believed to be hidden in many places outside Thailand.

A few months ago, Thaksin and his wife Pojaman Shinawatra had a difficult time moving Bt400 million out of Thailand. Thai officials were told they wanted to buy a luxury home in London. Initially, the Bank of Thailand froze Pojaman's request to transfer Bt400 million out of the country. But after a month, it gave a green light for her to do so.

Central bank regulations require people to seek approval before transferring more than US$10 million out of the country to buy property. If the amount is below US$10 million, any commercial bank can simply process the transfer.

But people wanting to invest in a business worth more than US$50 million, also need central bank approval. If the amount is less, a commercial bank can process the deal on a person's behalf.

Now, Thaksin will need to withdraw £100 million from his wealth to purchase Manchester City. Will he ask the central bank for permission to move Bt7 billion out to complete this transaction? And will the central bank allow him to do so? Nobody knows Thaksin's and Pojaman's real net worth. More than a year ago, it was rumoured that they had about US$3 billion (about Bt140 billion).

After selling 49 per cent of Shin Corp to Temasek Holdings of Singapore last year, the two and family members collected Bt73.3 billion in cash. This huge amount of money is still parked in Thai banks inside the country. The central bank has been keeping a watchful eye on Thaksin's and Pojaman's money.

Thaksin had been very conscious of risk management. He sold out Shin Corp in order to get cash. His reasoning was that if his political fortune turned sour - as it did - he wanted to cash rather than stocks or other immovable assets.

Another question that has had little attention is whether Thaksin has kept wealth in overseas bank accounts. In his asset declaration, the PM never admitted having assets abroad. He only admitted that after the Shin Corp sale.

When the Shin deal happened in January 2006, it became public knowledge that he also had assets in Ample Rich Investments, set up in the British Virgin Islands.

Thaksin's relationship with Ample Rich was an open secret in financial markets. Ample Rich held about 10 per cent of Shin stocks worth about Bt16 billion. But Thaksin claimed that he transferred his interests in Ample Rich to his son Panthongtae well before entering politics in 2000/1. So went his perfect script.

After the floating of the baht in 1997, several wealthy Thais put money into offshore accounts. Korn Chatikavanij of the Democrat Party has called for an inquiry to check if Thaksin kept assets in offshore accounts without declaration.

It has also emerged that Win Mark and other "secret" funds subscribed to stocks in SC Assets, a property arm of the Shinawatra family, as if they had acted on behalf of major shareholders.

How much wealth have Thaksin and Pojaman in Thailand? Our guess is that it would probably be more than Bt100 billion, with Bt73 billion at least in cash. Any amount over this must be kept in overseas bank accounts or other types of assets.

So, Thaksin can either use cash in Thailand, or in theory, money in offshore accounts, to pay Bt7 billion for Manchester City.

But if he asks to transfer Bt7 billion out of the country - in a formal request to Bank of Thailand governor Tarisa Watanagase - we'll be curious to know how she'd respond.

MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, Tarisa's predecessor, grumbled when he heard that Thaksin wanted to raise about 70 million pounds in public funds to acquire a 30-per-cent stake in Liverpool Football Club three years ago.

Pridiyathorn would not allow this transaction to take place, saying a football club was a high-risk business. If cash put into Liverpool was lost, who would take responsibility for such a deal, also involving public money? But the Manchester City deal, involves only Thaksin's money. Still, it'll be interesting to see how Tarisa may handle this.

Thaksin and Pojaman can't have had much sleep over the way local authorities are going after them for the host of irregular deals they did before he was ousted - from the Ratchada land sale, a questionable stock transfer back in 1997, the CTX baggage scanners for the new airport, the Ample Rich links to the Shin takeover, and other as yet undisclosed overseas transactions.

On the other hand, Thaksin might only want the "Man City deal" for publicity, and attention to his "plight". We'll find out soon, as the riddles unfold in coming weeks.

Political Desk

The Nation