ASC passes on report on lottery scheme

General News - Saturday December 22, 2007

ASC passes on report on lottery scheme

Thaksin and cabinet members accused

The Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) yesterday forwarded eight boxes of investigation reports on the two- and three-digit lottery case to public prosecutors seeking an indictment against deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and 48 other suspects.

Jaruvan Maintaka, a member of the ASC, led a team which handed over the ASC's investigation reports on alleged corruption by the Thaksin administration in the two- and three-digit lottery case to representatives of the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) yesterday.

The ASC team handed the OAG two sets of the 32-file documents, which includes the ASC's investigation report and evidence.

Khunying Jaruvan said the ASC believes there is sufficient evidence indicating wrongdoings allegedly committed by members of the then Thaksin cabinet and the Government Lottery Office's (GLO) board members and executives.

According to Khunying Jaruvan, the ASC had found all 49 suspects had been involved in 20 irregularities in the 2003 launch of the two- and three-digit lottery scheme.

The public prosecutors handling the indictment will quantify from the ASC's investigation reports the actual financial damage to the state caused by suspects in the case, she said.

''We want the public to know how much this lottery scheme damaged the country. However, we have to give time to the public prosecutors to consider the case to ensure justice,'' she said.

Thanapit Moonpruek, a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney-General, said his office has appointed a team of prosecutors led by Deputy Attorney-General Waiwut Lortrakool to carefully consider the investigation reports from the ASC before deciding whether to indict the suspects with the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions.

Sakesan Bangsomboon, the OAG's director-general of special litigation, said the prosecuting team would initially look to see if the ASC's reports are complete. However, he could not specify when the examination would finish.

According to the ASC, its sub-panel investigating the digit lottery irregularities has accused the 49 suspects of initiating and approving the two- and three-digit lottery scheme without authorisation and violating three monetary laws by unlawfully acquiring tax exemptions for the lottery scheme.

Among the suspects are members of the Thaksin cabinet who attended the July 8, 2003, cabinet meeting where a regulation legalising the lottery scheme was passed.

They will be accused of violating the criminal code.

Two cabinet members who did not attend the July 8 meeting, former education minister Pongpol Adireksarn and former deputy interior minister Pramual Rujanaseri, who is now leader of the Prachamati party contesting the election, have been excluded from the ASC's investigation.

Board members and executives of the GLO involved in the 2003 lottery scheme launch will face both criminal and civil charges.

Bangkok Post