The Nation
Public prosecutor on Monday filed lawsuits against Khunying Pojaman Shinawatrra, wife of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, her brother, Bhanapot Damapong, and her personal secretary, Kanjanapa Honghern, for major tax evasion.
The three reported themselves to the Criminal Court on Monday morning and posed bail of Bt6 million for each.
They appeared at the Criminal Court at about 9.30am to hear the charge. At the press time, their lawyer are submitting Bt6-million bank accounts for bail for each person.
Court has set May 24 to check proposing evidence of both parties.
If convicted, they would face jail terms of up to 14 years each for tax evasion.
This is apparently the first time that a wife of a Thai prime minister was charged with criminal-linked charge and tax irregularities.
Public prosecutors believed that Pojaman, Bhanapot and Kanjanapa were involving in filing income tax returns in relation to a shock transaction in 2000. They were alleged to unlawfully claim tax exemption.
Prosecutors earlier said they would treat the case as a criminal conspiracy, and the matter could not be settled out of court even if the defendants later decided to meet their tax obligations.
Based on the Assets Examination Commission's report, the defendants were liable for Bt500 million in unpaid tax, he said.
If convicted, they would have to meet their tax liabilities and pay a fine of up to Bt400,000 on top of any time served in jail, he said.
This is disgusting. The current illegally installed government is going after the Shinawatras for a criminal conspiracy that happened before they even came to power, during Chuan II. What exactly will be the government's defense when the officials who were responsible for overseeing the Shinawatras tax returns did nothing?
Does this justify the coup? Nope.
This is an Al Capone type of prosecution. They have nothing of substance to get the Shins on, so they audit their books from 8 years ago. Why not audit their taxes from when they were in power, so it can be proved that they used their authority to break the law?
This current government is like a Soviet style government. It uses selective prosecution to chase after its enemies.
Anywhere in the civilized world this would be denounced as unjust bordering on the fascistic, but, in Thailand, business as usual.
4 comments:
The article says the transaction happened in 2000 and with the normal revenue department time lags & investigative delays, I would say this matter would not have fallen on the Chuan government to investigate - it really should have been investigated during the Thaksin reign, but we all know what the result would have been then.(During the Thaksin reign, the revenue department officials just produced the result that Thaksin wanted)
Yes it seems disgusting, but 7 years is not necessarily an excessive time when it involves bringing tax fraud cases to court. However, normally, the matter would have gone through an appeals/objection process in the meantime, but with Thaksin in power that was never going to happen. .
This current government is like a Soviet style government. It uses selective prosecution to chase after its enemies.
Would you prefer if it they used extra judicial killings?
or
How about if they start a war on false evidence?
On balance, the current junta is nothing like a soviet style government - if anything it is trying to be too reasonable which translates into weak and indecisive.
Expect the pro Thaksin camp to try to stir up more trouble the closer Thaksin & his cronies get to being nailed.
This is an Al Capone type of prosecution. They have nothing of substance to get the Shins on, so they audit their books from 8 years ago.
Well this is an Al Capone type of guy in a prohibition 1920's type country!
We need more Elliott Ness's's's's!
Wrong is wrong. The answer to your question "Why weren't they prosecuted back then? Why didn't the NCC go for them?" is because both parties were under patronage of the Shiniwatras.
I fail to understand why people are unhappy about this. They lied, they used influence and power to take them above the law. It doesn't matter when they did it, it was wrong.
I'm not saying two wrongs make a right, I know the coup was also wrong.
Mrs Shiniwatra is a greedy and arrogant woman who cheated the law. I hope she goes down and if investigations reveal the siblings also broke the law, I hope they go down too.
"They have nothing of substance to get the Shins on" This is because they were smart criminals who destroyed and concealed evidence. Nobody observing events in Thailand can honestly believe they did not break the law and BTW, tax evasion is "substance".
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