Whenever he falls under pressure from Thais here and overseas to resign, Thaksin can always boast about his ardent fan, as Lipsher is a member of several renowned associations: the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. That's a lot of CPAs.

Lipsher's great admiration is shown in an article in Tax Notes International, where the accountant highlighted his immense interest in the Temasek Holdings-Shin Corp deal.

 At the time he wrote the article, he might have not known about the dissolution of Parliament.

"I do think he will remain through the balance of his term," he wrote. "Thaksin is simply too good a politician compared to his opposition."

Swept up in his admiration, he closely followed the reports on the Shin Corp deal, first from The Financial Times, then Bangkok Post and The Nation.

He came up with a conclusion which should really please Thaksin.

"I read the accounts of the transaction and traced the shares from owner to owner to owner to final owner (the individual family members). I followed the numbers and the transaction trail in relation to the law.

Thaksin (certainly not his children) did it correctly - he had good tax consultants. It was legal tax avoidance. Everything bandied about in the press appears to be about finding the ultimate albatross to hang around Thaksin's neck."

While saying that this is "legal tax avoidance" thanks to a good tax consultant, he goes on to show his deep knowledge of Thai politics:

"Thai politics seems to be about one bunch of rich guys, the victorious rich guys who cash in while they are in office. The other rich guys are not left out in the cold.

They're still rich, just not as rich as they could be if they were the ones in power."

His claim to know the deal inside out is belied, however, by his statement: "AIS [Advanced Info Service, the cellular unit of Shin] is important to Thailand because it has launched and operates telecommunication satellites."

Actually this is in the hands of another company, Shin Satellite.

Still, Thaksin might not mind this bit of inaccuracy as long as the valiant foreign accountant assures the public that his epic deal was legal. Right now, the prime minister needs all the moral support he can get.

achara_d@nationgroup.com