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A summary of Dr Thaksin
Shinawatra’s defence in the
Supreme Court in the case to
confiscate his assets
http://www.thaksinlive.com/2010/02/headlines/722
Open News
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2/26/2010
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1) Dr Thaksin and his spouse were accused of owning the remaining shares of
Shin Crop during the Thaksin administration even though the laws clearly
prohibited any politician and his spouse from being shareholders of any
company receiving concession from the government. It was also claimed that
the sale of the shares by Dr Thaksin and his wife to their children and other
family members was not genuine and merely a scheme to disguise his and his
wife’s ownership of the shares. This skepticism arose as the Asset Scrutiny
Committee (ASC) and the Attorney-General noticed that the sale price of the
shares was below the market price. In addition, the promissory note from the
buyers contained no specific time limit or interest rate.
The accusations were untrue. The charges were purely products of political
conflicts that resulted from the military coup led by General Sonthi
Boonyaratakalin. On September 19, 2006, the military overthrew the elected
government led by Prime Minister Thaksin. The coup leader tried to justify the
military’s unlawful acts to the Thai people giving four reasons:
In order to justify the accusations, the coup leaders set up a group of people
called the Asset Scrutiny Committee (ASC). The role of ASC was to investigate,
accuse and prosecute Dr Thaksin and his colleagues in the government. ASC
was set up even though the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC)
already existed as part of judicial system for the purpose of investigating and
punishing politicians and government officers who were directly or indirectly
involved in corruption. ASC’s interrogation and investigation procedures were
unlawful. ASC listened only to witnesses preferred by the accuser and selected
only material offered by the accuser. The accused was deprived of the right to
have his lawyer during the interrogation and investigation. ASC indicted
Dr Thaksin on a numbers of charges. The role of ASC in the investigation of
Dr Thaksin was not to find out the truth. Its main purpose was to, by whatever
means, find some fault or other with Dr Thaksin and to justify the military’s
reasons for overthrowing an elected and legitimate government. The coup
leaders intentionally selected ASC members from those who had beliefs, ideas
and political ideology opposed to those held by Dr Thaksin, and were
antagonistic to him. Mr Klanarong Jantuk, Mr Kaewsan Atipoti and Mr Banjerd
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Singkaneti were the members of ASC and they had had conflicts with Dr
Thaksin. Before the coup, they had publicly called on Dr Thaksin to resign from
the premiership. They had accused him of malpractice and corruption. They
even participated in several rallies of People Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
One would expect members of ASC who are going to interrogate and
investigate anyone must be people not in conflict with the accused. When Dr
Thaksin objected to the above three men’s membership of ASC, his plea was
flatly rejected.
All charges and accusations of ASC were groundless. The reasons for
supporting the case were subjective. Official facts and figures were deleted
from the case. The procedures followed to prosecute ran counter to Thai and
international legal principles.
Therefore, the case against Dr Thaksin was illegal and unjust. It did not conform
to the general will of the Organic Law on Criminal Procedure for Persons
Holding Political Position AD 2542, Article 5.
Prior to the filing of charges against Dr Thaksin, the Attorney-General had said
that the ASC file was incomplete and he could not prosecute the accused
because the contents of the file could not demonstrate the quantity of
extraordinary wealth earned by Dr Thaksin. ASC could not figure out the
amount of wealth that Dr Thaksin and his family earned before he took the
office, the amount he earned after he become prime minister and the amount
of wealth he earned by abusing the prime minister’s authority. ASC claimed that
all wealth (in the form of total money deposits) that belonged to Dr Thaksin and
his family was the product of his abuse of power. This is a sheer fabrication, not
based on any principle of law, and totally unreasonable. After the case went to
the National Anti-Corruption Commission, a joint commission between NACC
and the Attorney-General’s Chambers was formed. However, the mistakes and
incorrectness of the file had remained. So, the case was void and invalid
because it was against Article 11 of the Organic Law on Criminal Procedure for
Persons Holding Political Position. The joint commission could not correct the
case because there was no ground to charge the accused. However, NACC
insisted on its position to charge Dr Thaksin and the AG had to bend to the
pressure and file the charges. The prosecution was therefore void and invalid,
based on ulterior motive and counter to the rule of law.
1. Shin Corp was founded by Dr Thaksin, his wife and Bhanapot Damapong in
1983. Its objective was to enter the telecom business. Dr Thaksin and his wife
were the principal shareholders. Because telecom business had been a
necessary service for the changing world, Shin Corp became a successful
company. The company was reshaped and restructured many times resulting
in the present Shin Corp.
2. Another important issue that should be understood is that the shares of Shin
Corp always had a value of their own, like all other assets.
We could not accept the argument of the joint commission that “Though the
Shin Corp shares had their own value, as long as they are not sold or
transformed into cash, the shares could lose their values and prices because
normally share prices fluctuate all the time. During his administration the
accused had abused his power and maneuvered by all means to increase the
price of the share. Then, he sold and cashed the shares on January 23, 2006.
The sum of money the accused received from this transaction, therefore, was
an extraordinary wealth as it was the result of the abuse of power. The Joint
Commission of NACC and AG, therefore hold that the accused had no asset
prior to his assuming the post of Prime Minister.”
The adjudication of the Joint Commission that the shares of Shin Corp were not
assets and had no value or price before Dr Thaksin became Prime Minister is
totally unacceptable. In fact, after Shin Corp was listed on the stock exchange,
its business had expanded rapidly, especially its telecom wing. Telecom is a
necessary modern business that caters to people’s and state’s interests. Any
investor would anticipate that Shin Corp has not only a strong foundation but
also a prosperous future. Mobile phone and satellite are particularly necessary
for the present day and future communication. The price of the Shin Corp
shares as well as the volume of transactions on SET kept increasing. That was
in keeping with the rise of SET Index and GDP growth.
On the day Shin Corp was listed on SET, its share, with a par value of Bt10,
closed at Bt438. The SET Index was at 862.71
In 1993, the SET Index peaked at 1496.71. Shin Corp shares changed hands at
Bt1,426. If Dr Thaksin and his wife had sold all their family shares then, they
would have reaped Bt200,000 million.
On September 1, 2000, the day the accused sold and transferred the shares to
his son, daughters and other family members, the SET Index was 310.73, the
price of Shin Bt178. If Dr Thaksin and his wife had sold all their family shares on
that day, he would have cashed Bt26,481,770,220.
On February 7, 2001, the last trading day before Dr Thaksin became Prime
Minister, the SET Index was 327.51 and the price of Shin Bt214. If Dr Thaksin
and his family had sold all their shares on that day, they would have reaped
Bt31,837,638,568.
All such data confirmed the value of Shin Corp shares well before Dr Thaksin
became prime minister. However, the joint commission held that he had no
original assets. Such a stand is groundless, unreasonable, unacceptable,
unjust and unlawful. It shows that the joint commission’s intent and exercise of
discretion were irrational. This was totally illegal and should negate the entire
case.
The service expansion caused Shin Corp to demand more capital. Dr Thaksin
and his wife did keep buying shares to keep their family’s shareholding at the
same level. In 1999, Shin Corp increased its capital to Bt5,000 million. Dr
Thaksin owned 65,840,000 shares, while his wife owned 69,300,000 shares.
This is truly a proof that the asset was original. It was not acquired through the
commission of an offence. It was not an additional asset that Dr Thaksin had
reaped after he assumed the office of Prime Minister. It had its own value, and
its price fluctuated according to the market along with SET Index. Dr Thaksin
and his family owned the Shin Corp shares openly and everyone in Thailand
recognized this.
Corp on Nasdaq, New York. Ample Rich was established to hold some portion
of shares of Shin Corp and to trade on Nasdaq.
Ample Rich was a company registered in British Virgin Island. A lot of business
corporations that intend to expand their operations internationally prefer to
register companies in this territory. Ample Rich was openly and legally
registered and had informed SEC of its business. Shin Corp had informed SEC
that it had transferred 32.92 million shares to Ample Rich at par in order to
prepare to list Shin Corp on Nasdaq. This was not a concealed act. How could
a listed company conceal its operation by informing the authority of what it had
done? However, with the change in the international financial environment, the
management of Shin Corp scrapped its plan to list its shares on Nasdaq.
Before Dr Thaksin became Prime minister, he transferred the shares of Shin
Corp in Ample Rich to his son and daughter at par. The Revenue Department
did evaluate taxes due from both people in the transaction, and the sum was
paid. The tax collection by the Revenue Department from the son and daughter
of Dr Thaksin concerning the Shin Corp shares transferred from Ample Rich
was recognized by SEC. The official act of the Revenue Department was
nothing but a legal declaration to confirm that the son and daughter were the
real owners of the shares. But when the case was filed, the Joint Commission
claimed that this portion of the Shin Corp shares belonged to Dr Thaksin and
accused him of concealment.
This illustrated the unprincipled behavior of the commission which based its
verdicts solely on its preferences and not on valid grounds.
The 1,487,740,120 Shin Corp shares that were sold to Temasek belonged to
Dr Thaksin’s family. Win Mark Co that had some portion of the Shin Corp shares
did not sell its shares to any company. Therefore, Win Mark was not involved
and is not related to the case at all.
Worse, the family members who owned the asset before its sale to Temasek
were never politicians. Therefore, the Joint Commission’s accusation that the
Facts and legal issues that involve shareholding and the abuse of Prime
Ministerial authority to facilitate the interests of Shin Corp:
1. Dr Thaksin and his wife did not employ anyone to be their proxy to hold the
shares of Shin Corp on their behalf.
Dr Thaksin was the owner of 65,840,000 shares of Shin Corp. His wife was the
owner of 69,300,000 shares. Both had sold all their shares in 2000. The buyers
had paid the sum due to them. All the material witnesses confirmed this. The
transaction was recorded at the Revenue Department, SEC, NACC and all
banks and officials concerned.
The selling and transferring of the shares were done in good faith, open, and
known to the public. The buyers bought the shares to legally trade on SET. The
new owners of the shares, whether they were son, daughter or other relatives of
Dr Thaksin, had to pay taxes concerning the ownership of the shares, which
they did. Therefore, the share transaction was real and genuine and was not a
concealed act.
It must be noted that this transaction was between parents and children. ASC
could not hold that a transaction between relatives with blood ties must be at
par with a general business transaction.
If Dr Thaksin and his wife prefer to gratuitously transfer any shares to their
children, it can be done and is accepted by law and custom. According to Thai
law, a transfer of assets between parents and children could be done without
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any payment. Why ASC had to bother to consider the price and terms of
payment of such a transaction? This is not the essence of the case.
However, the transfer of the shares in this instance was not entirely free of
charge. Dr Thaksin and his wife wanted their children to learn business lessons.
All business needs investment. There will always be a cost, legal binding and
responsibility. That was why they both sold their shares at par.
The transaction at par between parents and children is normal, legal and
rightful. But ASC did not understand and did not accept. Nevertheless, ASC’s
accusation is groundless.
The filing of the Joint Commission to confiscate the assets of Dr Thaksin and his
wife was contradictory to the essence of law.
(a) The asset that the Joint Commission asked to confiscate did not belong to
any politician. Dr Thaksin and his wife were not the owners of the controversial
asset. The money was the sale proceeds from the disposal of the Shin shares
and was in the bank in the name of its owners. No money was ever transferred
out of this account. It was in the same bank, in the same account from the day
of share transaction in January 2006 till the military coup overthrew Thaksin
government. The account was untouched for one year and five months before
ASC ordered the freeze.
(b) Beside, the Joint Commission had no material witness to prove who was
the proxy of Dr Thaksin and his wife. There was no proof that the transferring of
shares was a concealed act.
Moreover, during the case, ASC argued that the 69,300,000 shares of Shin
Corp belonged to Dr Thaksin’s spouse. Thus it accepted that these shares did
not belong to a politician, as Dr Thaksin’s spouse was not a politician. NACC
and the A-G cannot request to confiscate the asset of Dr Thaksin’s wife, as the
law does not provide for that.
Even of the number of shares that ASC claimed that belonged to Dr Thaksin,
half of them must belong to his wife according to the civil code, which means
that half did not belong to a politician. It also means the Joint Commission
cannot request their confiscation.
What the Joint Commission claimed to be Dr Thaksin’s asset did not come from
the abuse of power. The Commission’s submission never pinpointed how Dr
Thaksin abused his power. It was not able to offer any evidence as to how he
exerted his power to get a bribe, in exchange for what or how much money he
collected. No material witness ever supported the claim of the accusers. The
Commission’s submission could only express a doubt.
The claimed asset was not extraordinary wealth, but was ordinarily earned. The
asset that Dr Thaksin owned was his wealth that he deserved and owned
before he took office as Prime Minister. The Shin share transaction was not
concealed but open through the SET. The sum paid to the owners of shares
had come from legal sources and rationally paid for productive shares. All was
explainable. ASC and the Joint Commission had no ground to claim that the
wealth was extraordinary according to law.
Furthermore, the amount of the original wealth of Dr Thaksin, his wife and their
children had already been informed to NACC when he was Prime Minister for
the first term in 2001. The sum he notified the NACC at that time was Bt15,124
million. The account he had shown did not related to Shin Corp at all. It was
shown that Dr Thaksin did not own any shares in Shin Corp since 2000.
Before 2000, adding up all the value of the Shin shares held by the Shinawatra
and Damapong family would result in a total of Bt31,838 million. Together with
Dr Thaksin’s non-Shin assets, the total figure in 2000 would have been Bt46,962
million. That wealth was by no means extraordinarily earned. All assets were
the product of diligence and hard work for almost two decades. It was not at all
related to the post of prime minister. Since they were proved to be the original
wealth, how could the Joint Commission ask to confiscate them?
A sum of Bt6,899 million was the dividend. This sum was also requested by the
Joint Commission to be confiscated. Dividend is normal business practice. All
healthy companies have to pay dividend to their shareholders regularly. It is
the most attractive motivation of the capitalist system.
Price fluctuation is normal for all listed shares. Shin shares had fluctuated in the
same way as the SET Index and in keeping with economic conditions in the
country. It was in no way abnormal. It was impossible that Prime Minister
Thaksin could manipulate the price of Shin shares. The accusation of NACC
and the A-G was therefore irrational.
Dr Thaksin had never abused his power to benefit his own interests or those of
his cronies.
ASC and the Joint Commission accused Dr Thaksin of abusing his power to
facilitate Shin Corp and its affiliated companies. The accusation is absolutely
untrue. It has been proved that during the entire period of his time as prime
minister, he had devoted his physical and mental capability to running the
country with honesty. Benefits and interests of Thailand and her people were
the most important goals of his cabinets. His government’s policies and policy
implementation conformed to the Constitution and the laws. All policies he
implemented were openly stated in Parliament and endorsed by Parliament.
The policies of “30 Baht cures all”, OTOP, the scholarship programme, the
Village Fund, the early repaying of debt to IMF were recognized as outstanding
achievements. These policies were warmly accepted by Thai people. Even
when an opposition party had an opportunity to run the country, it kept
implementing these policies without hesitation. Managing Thailand was not the
sole responsibility of Prime Minister; all policies and policy implementation must
be agreed upon and approved by the Cabinet. Every ministry was under the
supervision of a minister. Therefore, the accusation of ASC, NACC and A-G that
Dr Thaksin abused his power to facilitate his cronies and his own interests was
absolute nonsense.
The Excise Tax Amendment BE 2546 and the Cabinet resolution to deduct
excise tax out of concession fee were by virtue of the operation of laws. The
Constitution Court had ruled in favour of the two acts. That ruling was binding
on all authorities and organizations, including ASC, NACC and the A-G. It said
that the three organizations had no veto power to overrule such ruling. To put
the blame on Dr Thaksin for this is not in accordance with laws.
The issuing of the law concerning excise tax did not damage the state interest.
All mobile phone operators had to pay the concession fees to TOT and CAT.
TOT and CAT will deduct a portion of the fee for their management costs and
hand the rest over to the state. As for the excise tax, it will go directly to the
government without any deduction. When TOT and CAT were privatized,
dividends for their shareholders were deducted from the fees. To change the
concession fee to be excise tax was reasonable and benefitted the state. ASC,
NACC and the A-G claimed that the alteration from concession fee to excise tax
was to facilitate AIS, an affiliate of Shin Corp. The fact is the cost to AIS
remained the same. No company gained out of the alteration, the state only
collected more.
2. The alteration of contract between TOT and AIS, to adjust the proportion of
revenue sharing for prepaid mobile phone system:
The original contract between TOT and AIS concerning revenue sharing was
based on the postpaid system. Generally speaking, the AIS customers had to
pay Bt500 monthly at an air time fee of Bt3 per minute. The revenue sharing
was on a graduated scale of 15, 20, 25, and 30 percent. When a new service of
prepaid was introduced, both sides had to review the contract, since it had
never been envisaged in the original contract. They settled for an agreement.
The material witnesses for this were the minutes of the Board of TOT, and
statement of TOT officers. All of this was known to ASC.
The prepaid revenue sharing scheme between TOT and AIS was at a flat rate of
20% with attached conditions, such as earlier date of payment, a discount rate
(from the postpaid agreement) that must go to the customers, and that AIS
must pay VAT by itself. The additional condition was not applied to AIS’s
competitors.
The Joint Commission claimed that this agreement was illegal. However, the
board of the State Council had already adjudicated the additional contract
between AIS and TOT (recorded as a finalized issue no.291/2550). The Joint
Commission could not revoke this issue again, because it had to do with
interpretation of the law and the issue had been adjudicated by the State
Council.
If roaming was not provided, both AIS and TOT would lose revenue. Hence the
agreement on roaming between the two parties, in full conformity with the
Telecommunications Act BE 2544.
This agreement provided for AIS to deduct the roaming fee out of the revenue
sharing. It was reasonable and in no way contradictory to the terms of the
original agreement. It was known that TOT would ultimately benefit from the
additional profits brought in by roaming. The roaming structure that AIS agreed
with TOT was similar to those that AIS had agreed with other international
telephone companies. So, the agreement with TOT was reasonable and
justified.
AIS did fully comply with terms and conditions in the agreement with
TOT. From the first day of agreement, AIS has been constructing and
transferring networks to TOT. The construction cost so far amounted to
Bt200,000 million. AIS networks now cover the whole country. New networks
are still under construction. The accusation against AIS on this matter was
therefore totally unjustified.
The approval to utilize iPSTAR was under the original agreement between
Ministry of Transport and Shin Corp. It was not a new project. The authority
The approval of the authority concerned that allowed Shin Satellite to redeem
leasing fee to service the tenants was in the terms of agreement. Shin Sat had
a duty to provide a guaranteed service to its tenants. iPSTAR was there to
replace THAICOM 3 in an emergency.
Reducing the proportion of shareholding of Shin Corp in Shin Satellite from 51%
to 40% was not subversive to Thailand’s security. According to the agreement,
whenever the satellite was launched into space, the ownership of satellite was
changed to the state immediately. Reducing the proportion of Shin Corp’s
shareholding in Shin Sat did not lessen the power to manage Shin Sat. With
40% holding, Shin Corp was still the dominant shareholder. The argument to
find fault with this arrangement was irrational.
The Myanmar deal of EXIM bank was in the framework of Bagan Declaration
and ACMECS (Ayerawady-Chao Phraya–Mekong Economic Cooperation
Strategy) and the accord between Thailand and Myanmar. It was based on a
good relationship between Thailand and its neighbouring country. So, it was
just a policy-related loan. When EXIM Bank approved the loan, the Cabinet
reduced the interest rate for the government of Myanmar. This conformed to
laws that governed EXIM bank. At the same time, it was an exercise in foreign
policy. Decision making on the deal was not based entirely on business
considerations alone. It had security, social, economic and other implications.
The timely assistance the Thaksin government rendered to Myanmar
government resulted in another deal: PTT, the petroleum investment arm of
Thailand, won a concession in gas exploration and exploitation in the gulf of
Mataban. The concession was worth billions of baht. The reduction of interest
by EXIM bank of Bt90 million had returned a huge benefit for Thailand. At the
same time, the friendly gesture of Thai government lessened the tension in the
relationship between the two countries. To evaluate only one side of a deal with
a foreign country without comprehensive appraisal of all considerations is
wrong.
Besides, the spending of the loan was entirely at the discretion of Myanmar
government. It was impossible for the accused, Shin Sat, or any Thai company
to force the Myanmar government to buy their goods and services. More
importantly, the loan did not benefit Shin Sat as the contract Shin Sat was
awarded was worth only Bt376 million, which was only 9.39% of the total loan.
The business deal was done at a regular price without any special privilege.
Moreover, EXIM’s loan was also used to do business with 16 other Thai
companies, none of which was a source of income for the accused. Therefore,
to allege EXIM bank had granted the loan to benefit Shin Sat is unjustified given
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that the government had been voluntarily doing business with the company
since 1998. This corresponded with the government’s attempt to develop the
telecommunication sector in the country. The contract on buying a satellite and
related equipment was entered into well before Dr Thaksin formed the
government. Furthermore, to unreasonably reject the request for the loan would
have affected a friendly relationship between the two countries.
Temasek Group did not require the act to be amended to buy Shin Corp
shares.
Moreover, only Parliament can enact new laws or amend existing ones. Dr
Thaksin as Prime Minister could not amend any law on his own. When the
Parliament had endorsed the law, how could ASC accuse Dr Thaksin or his
Cabinet of abusing his power to amend the law?
All the above facts and legal principles clearly demonstrate that Dr Thaksin and
his wife did not own the 1,419,490,150 shares of the Shin Corp. Their children
and relatives and other legal entities were not their proxies. Dr Thaksin did not
abuse his power to benefit his cronies or himself. The wealth was not gained
out of malpractice. He deserved the wealth he had and he has full right over it.
The sum of Bt76,621,603,061.05 did not belong to Dr Thaksin and his wife. The
sum did not belong to any politician or state officer. Therefore, the request to
confiscate the sum is invalid.
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