The Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) has ordered a freeze on another seven bank accounts at Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank, involving eight billion baht, which was withdrawn shortly before the panel ordered the assets of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and five of his kin frozen.
‘‘The money is now lying in the bank accounts of members of the Shinawatra and Damapong families,’’ said ASC spokesman Sak Korsaengruang.
On June 11, the ASC ordered a freeze on 21 local bank accounts of Mr Thaksin, his wife Potjaman, their two grown-up children Panthongtae and Pinthongta, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra and Khunying Potjaman’s stepbrother Bannapot Damapong. The freeze was ordered on 52 billion of the 73 billion baht the Shinawatra and Damapong families had together earned from the sale of their shares in Shin Corp to Singapore-based Temasek Holdings in January last year.
As of June 4, the money in the 21 accounts came to 52 billion baht. However, on June 12, when local banks enforced the ASC order and froze the 21 accounts, eight billion baht was missing.
Mr Sak said after an ASC meeting yesterday that the ASC had found the missing money from the 21 frozen accounts in the accounts of people close to the Shinawatra and Damapong families at the two banks.
Four of the accounts, at Bangkok Bank’s Soi Aree branch, belong to SC Office Plaza Co, PT Corporation Co, Worth Supply Co, and IOA Management Co. The fifth account, under the name of Thirakupt Legal Advisory Co, is at Bangkok Bank’s Ratchadaphisek branch.
The other two accounts are at the Siam Commercial Bank’s’s Ratchadaphisek branch and are held by Chinnicha Wongsawat and Mr Bannapot. Ms Chinnicha is the daughter of Yaowapa Wongsawat, Mr Thaksin’s younger sister.
In those seven accounts, the ASC is only freezing what was transferred from the 21 accounts, said Mr Sak.
Mr Sak said the ASC is also searching for the other 21 billion baht which disappeared from those 21 accounts prior to June 4.
The ASC has asked all the banks involved to give the committee further details of the 21 accounts.
The ASC will summon Khunying Potjaman to clarify the Shin Corp share deals today .
Viroj Laohaphan, an ASC member, said Mr Thaksin’s legal adviser Noppadon Pattama will appeal against the assets freeze next Monday .
Mr Viroj, who heads a sub-panel scrutinising the Shin Corp share transactions between Ample Rich Investment Co and Panthongtae and Pinthongta Shinawatra and their alleged tax evasion, said the ASC has agreed to adjust down the tax liability from the share transactions of Ample Rich, after the sub-panel detected errors in the earlier calculation.
Initially, on April 23, the ASC ordered Ample Rich to pay 21.7 billion baht in income tax. But in the next round on July 7, it will come to 20.9 billion baht.
source:bangkokpost
