Frozen-assets dilemma

Can the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) continue to freeze the assets of Thaksin Shinawatra and his allegedly corrupt associates?

An NCCC official was assigned to look into the question after the military-installed Assets Examination Committee (AEC) ceased to exist. He returned with a legal theory that since the AEC was backed by three laws - the NCCC law, the anti-money laundering law and the Revenue Act - and the NCCC is backed only by the law under which it was created, the NCCC should not be able to hold onto the frozen assets.

This reasoning is based on the assumption that freezing assets relies largely on legal powers under the anti-money laundering law, which the NCCC does not wield.

Another school of thought within the NCCC, however, points to the commission's constitutional authority to carry on the AEC's tasks, one of which is supervising the freezing of the assets.

Now what?

The NCCC will have to either reaffirm its authority (over the frozen assets) or accept the official's assumption and let them go. Considering the NCCC's present personnel and their political leanings, my bet is that the commission will declare its authority over the assets.

If that's the case, what will happen next?

The good old Constitution Court will very likely be asked to rule on the NCCC's authority, probably by the Thaksin camp, which has been trying relentlessly to get the assets unfrozen.

How might the court rule?

The Constitution Court recently dealt a major blow to the Thaksin defence by endorsing the AEC's constitutional status. It's up to each of us, what we read into that.

If the assets continue to be frozen, will it affect Manchester City's spending power?

Believe it or not, half of the people of Manchester are following these developments closely, because many of them are aware of Thaksin's new ambition to take the club to a new level and trust him to inject more funds into team building if he gets the frozen money back.

However, according to Forbes magazine, even without the frozen assets, Thaksin is still worth around Bt13 billion - around Bt3 billion more than a year ago. That amount could easily be used to buy another club, although British rules wouldn't allow him to do that.

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