Thaksin lawyers may sue banks

Bangkok Post - Lawyers for the Shinawatra family have threatened to take legal action against commercial banks which have frozen a total of 65 billion baht of the family's assets if they do not free the assets because the Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) will soon be closed down.

The ASC, however, promptly responded yesterday, saying the banks must continue to freeze the assets of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's family, even though the agency will cease to exist at the end of this month.

The ASC was responding to inquiries from Siam Commercial Bank and Siam City Bank, which are among the commercial banks which have kept the 65-billion-baht in assets frozen.

The banks contacted the ASC on Thursday after lawyers representing Mr Thaksin's younger sister Yingluck, his brother-in-law Bannapot Damapong and his children Panthongtae and Pinthongta told the banks to free the money in accordance with the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) law, applied by the ASC.

The family claims the order to freeze the assets has expired, based on the NCCC law, which states that frozen assets must be freed if it fails to conclude the cases in court in one year. The time is up. Also, according to a statement from the lawyers sent to the banks, the ASC's tenure is due to end soon.

ASC member and spokesman Sak Korsaengruang said yesterday the assets freeze must continue in line with the 30th announcement of the Council for Democratic Reform (CDR) formed after the coup that toppled the Thaksin government in September 2006.

The announcement authorises the ASC to freeze wealth that was suspected to have been acquired illegally.

''Although the agency [ASC] will no longer exist after the end of this month, the CDR announcement authorises the NCCC to take over the corruption investigations of the ASC as well as the assets freeze,'' he said.

Mr Sak said the ASC saw no reason to cancel the order to freeze the assets.

In its investigation, the ASC found there were grounds to allegations of corruption, including cases of unusual wealth and improper wealth acquisitions that came while the Thaksin administration was in office.

Many cases have been processed in the judicial system and more are waiting to be forwarded by the Office of the Attorney-General to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions to seek court orders to transfer the wealth to government coffers, Mr Sak said.

The ASC also yesterday filed a complaint with the Attorney-General's Office against former transport minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit for allegedly rigging bids in the procurement of electricity cables for Suvarnabhumi airport.

Other suspects named in the same complaint are former transport permanent secretary Srisook Chandrangsu and 19 others related to the project.

Deputy auditor-general Pisit Leelawachiropas, who heads the ASC subcommittee handling the power cable case, submitted the complaint along with two boxes of evidence, including samples of the cables at the centre of the complaint.

The ASC accused Mr Suriya of malfeasance under the Criminal Code's Article 157.

The committee also accused Mr Srisook, who is also a former chairman of the New Bangkok International Airport Co and Airports of Thailand Plc, and 19 others involved in the design, median price setting, production and supply of the power cables and pipelines, of violating Articles 152, 341 and 83 of the Criminal Code and Articles 5, 7, 10 and 11 of the law governing quotations with state agencies. The law deals with price collusion in bidding contests.

It has been reported that the specifications of the 1.8-billion-baht electricity cable project had been changed only a day before the bidding contest and that this subsequently left only one contender qualified to take on the project.

The prosecution will consider the complaint in 30 days.