POLITICS / GENERAL ELECTION, CABINET MEMBERS' WEALTH, UNUSUALLY RICH ALLEGATION : Alongkorn vowsto nail Yaowapa.
SUPAWADEE INTHAWONG
Democrat party deputy leader Alongkorn Ponlabutr says he will go public today with information he claims will show how Yaowapa Wongsawat was instrumental in a web of cronyism feeding on ill-gotten gains which could be traced back to her brother, deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Mr Alongkorn said the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) has already accepted a complaint he filed against Mrs Yaowapa for being unusually rich.
Mr Alongkorn said he first exposed Mrs Yaowapa in May last year by releasing documents to back his allegations. ''I've spent four to five years putting together jigsaws of the whole network,'' he said.
He alleged Mrs Yaowapa, a former Thai Rak Thai MP, was an instrument of the ''Thaksin regime'' in seeking business interest for cronies.
Her network is also well connected to Mr Thaksin, he said.
''The group is also related to former key members of the New Aspiration party who have volunteered to be (her) nominees,''he said.
''I'll unveil the person who served as her right-hand man, doing everything for the former prime minister's sister.''
Many members of the New Aspiration party joined Mr Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party soon after the 2001 election.
Mr Alongkorn alleged Mrs Yaowapa also used her three children, who were then university students, along with a number of other people to act as her nominees in holding assets worth more than one billion baht while making false statements about her own assets.
Her three children are Yoschanant, 25, Chinnicha, 24 and Chayapha, 20.
Mr Alongkorn said that given their young age, the three children could not be capable of managing millions of baht of assets on their own. They were most likely just holding on to the assets for their mother, he said.
The NCCC has now appointed a sub-committee to look into the allegations against Mrs Yaowapa.
Meanwhile, Phisit Leelavachiropas, the deputy auditor-general who was involved in investigations into alleged corruption in the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) which involved Mrs Yaowapa, said he would be resuming his investigation.
Mr Phisit said he would carry out further enquiries before forwarding the case to the Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) and the NCCC.
Mr Phisit took charge of the investigation while the deal was in progress and said he plans to dust off the old files and forward the findings to the two agencies.
The alleged corruption in the PEA included its 3.19-billion-baht project to rent computer systems and software from a joint venture between Siemens, IBM and Portal Net Co.
Portal Net is an affiliate of M-Link Asia Corporation Plc, a telecom equipment supplier and mobile phone distributor of which key shareholders are another younger sister of Mr Thaksin, Monthathip Kowitcharoenkul, and her husband, Somchai, as well as Sansern Chulangkoon and Somporn Jungrungreangkit.
Mr Sansern is the brother of former transport minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit while Ms Somporn is Mr Suriya's sister-in-law. Mr Sansern changed his surname from Jungrungreangkit to Chulangkoon.
Two other shareholders in M-Link are Chinnicha and Yoschanant, Mrs Yaowapa's children.
Mr Alongkorn pointed out that two-thirds of executives of Portal Net, that was handed the deal by a government agency, are relatives of Mr Thaksin who was the prime minister at the time.
He also raised questions about the budget set for the project.
Another person Mr Alongkorn believes acted as a business nominee of Mrs Yaowapa's in a real estate project is Sunisa Pathompruek, a sister of Phumtham Vejjayachai, former deputy transport minister in the Thaksin government. The real estate project in question, Chinnicha Ville, is named after Mrs Yaowapa's daughter. Ms Sunisa holds a 99% stake in Sinmahat Co, a major shareholder of Sangsin Property Co, developer of Chinnicha Ville, with 40% shares. The remaining 60% shares are held by TBS Holdings.
Bangkok Post
Saturday January 13, 2007
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