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Published on September 12, 2007

Deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's legal adviser hit out at the Assets Examination Committee yesterday for its decision to press more charges against Thaksin for allegedly breaking anti-corruption laws by holding shares while in office.

Noppadon Pattama dismissed the accusations from the AEC panel that Thaksin held Shin Corp shares through company nominees Ample Rich and Win Mark.

He said the AEC was using old information to prove that Thaksin still owned Ample Rich in 1999

He insisted that he had transferred all the shares to his children Pingthongta and Panthongtae before assuming the post of prime minister.

What's more, Thaksin did not own Win Mark, he claimed.

He accused the assets committee of practising double standards for making the Revenue Department seek income tax from Pingthongta and Panthongtae for the Shin Corp share sale, while at the same time maintaining that Thaksin, and not his children, actually owned Shin Corp shares.

"The AEC is distorting the facts and politically harassing Thaksin."

He said dividends from Shin Corp shares that were transferred to the account of Thaksin's wife, Khunying Pojaman Shinawatra, from Panthongtae and Pingthongta and Thaksin's sister Yingluck was the money with which they paid their debts to Pojaman for the shares they bought from her.

The lawyer's team will meet the AEC panel within seven days to forward evidence and defend the allegations.

AEC spokesman Sak Korsaengruang said the AEC panel had used the old information simply because the incident happened in 1999 and it had to use documents from those years to prove their case.

He defended the allegation that the AEC had adopted unfair practice by making Thaksin's children pay income tax for Shin Corp share sale, saying that if Pinthongta and Panthongtae wanted to appeal against the tax collection, they would have to prove they did not own the shares and someone else did.

The AEC panel will wrap up its investigation over the new charges against Thaksin within a week.

AEC secretary Kaewsan Atibodhi said if the AEC endorsed the AEC panel's investigation, Thaksin and his wife would be summoned to defend themselves against the accusation within 15 days, and would be allowed to use representatives to give statements on their behalf.

They would also be allowed to postpone the testimony if they do not intend to resort to tactics to buy time.

Meanwhile, Finance Ministry permanent-secretary Suparat Kawatkul and former Revenue Department chief Sirot Sawadpanich will be among six people summoned to hear charges of dereliction of duty for not imposing income tax on Shin Corp shares some time this week, a source in the AEC said yesterday.

Revenue Department legal specialist, Krit Bunyasiri and former legal officer Morirat Bunyasiri yesterday defended themselves against the charge before an AEC panel.

Suparat and Sirot are expected to hear the charges on Friday.

The AEC has sought cooperation from the government to trace the Bt8.6 billion that the Shinawatra family transferred out of the country, source said.

Kaewsan last week asked Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to instruct the Anti-Money Laundering Commission, the Office of the Attorney-General and the Securities and Exchange Commission to check and freeze assets of Thaksin abroad.

The assets committee found that the Bt8.6 billion the Shinawatra family transferred out of the country included Bt485 million paid to Win Mark on October 27, 2003; Bt3.5 billion that Win Mark earned from selling Shin Corp shares from small investors before selling to Temasek; and Shin Corp's dividend of Bt1.7 billion that was deposited with UBS Singapore.

Budsarakham    Sinlapalavan

 The Nation