It expects SC Asset - formerly known as OAI Property - to respond with the required information within one or two days, an SEC source said.

Recently, Democrat Party deputy leader Korn Chatikavanij drew attention to remarks by Thaksin that he had sold OAI Property, PT Corp and SCK Asset to Win Mark for Bt906 million. Win Mark then sold OAI Property to Value Asset Fund (VAF) Malaysia in 2003.

However, Korn claims to have since discovered that Win Mark also held shares in two other companies - SC Office Park and Worth Supplies - and that total investment in the five firms was Bt1.5 billion.

Win Mark is suspected of being another Shinawatra family nominee company, because it shares the same address as Ample Rich Investments, in the British Virgin Islands.

On January 20, 2006, Ample Rich sold 329.2 million Shin Corp shares to two of Thaksin's children, Panthongtae and Pinthongta, for Bt1 each. Three days later, they sold the whole lot to Temasek Holdings of Singapore for Bt49.25 each. Panthongtae and Pinthongta Shinawatra own Ample Rich Investments.

Three weeks after buying OAI Property, VAF sold the shares to Overseas Growth Fund and Offshore Dynamic Fund, even though OAI Property - now SC Asset Corp - was then seeking a listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

According to bourse data, Pinthongta and Panthongtae Shinawatra each owned 28.97 per cent of SC Asset and Thaksin's wife, Pojaman Shinawatra, owned 2.88 per cent, as of April 7, 2005.

The Overseas Growth Fund, the Offshore Dynamic Fund, and Value Asset Fund also share the same address in Malaysia.

In addition, Value Asset Fund, before it sold OAI Property, transferred its right to buy 71 million new shares of OAI, at par value of Bt10, to Thaksin's two children. Based on its initial public offering price of Bt15 per share, the Shinawatra children automatically gained a Bt355-million windfall.

Korn also suspects that Win Mark has been concealing profits from speculation on the

baht from the financial crisis in 1997.

"We are waiting for clarification from the company and information from related parties overseas," the SEC source said.

"In this case, suspicion arose while the company was in the process of submitting a share-allocation application, so it became our responsibility," the source said.

"The SEC is the first [agency] that can request companies to clarify information. We have also requested the company to disclose information through the Stock Exchange of Thailand as SC [Asset] is a listed company and we want investors to get equal information."

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation