Quid pro quo: Will UAE trade British embezzler for Thaksin?

Bangkok Post:

Police have arrested a Briton in Bangkok's red light district who has been eight months on the run after allegedly embezzling US$150 million from a company in Dubai, police said on Thursday.

Michael Bryan Smith, 43, was arrested in the Nana area on Wednesday night after authorities in the United Arab Emirates sought Thailand's assistance, police told a press conference.

Smith allegedly siphoned off other workers' salaries into his own bank account while working as personnel manager at a Dubai property company, according the warrant from the UAE police said.

Police said Smith, who is married to a Thai woman, had travelled extensively through Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Thailand after fleeing Dubai.

They said Smith had denied all charges and the case would be handed over to the Attorney-General's Office and the UAE's application for his extradition would go through the proper procedures.


Something fishy here. I can smell it.


Actually The Nation has it buried in one of its stories about extraditing Thaksin:


Visanu said he had submitted a request to the Attorney General's Foreign Affairs office to seek the extradition of Thaksin, even though Thailand does not have an extradition treaty with the UAE. "We can ask for cooperation from the UAE since we had earlier helped them arrest and dispatch suspects wanted by them."


I reckon it is a quid pro quo agreement because the British embezzler certainly has enough cash to bribe his way out of custody.