"Shin Caught Red-Handed" (Shin Khanang Khakhao), published by Openbooks, is set to keep the controversy alive.

Offering new insight into the Shin Corp sale, it puts the focuses on a few crucial questions.

First, who represented the Shinawatra family in the negotiations to sell Shin Corp to Temasek Holdings?

The conglomerate's founder, ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, has insisted he transferred all of his Shin stock to his children and had virtually nothing to do with the sale of the company to the investment arm of the Singaporean government. However, Thaksin's son Panthongtae once told an interviewer that the Shin sale was "a matter of phuyai" or senior people.

Thaksin subsequently elaborated by saying his children could have relied on their uncles for advice about the deal.

Shin chairman Boonklee Plangsiri has said the company's management was left in the dark as shareholders dealt directly with Temasek.

Leaders in Singapore have consistently maintained that Temasek conducted the deal in good faith and on purely commercial terms. However, the Singaporeans have not identified who they negotiated with when they bought Shin Corp for Bt73.3 billion from Panthongtae and Pinthongta Shinawatra, Bannapot Damapong (Thaksin's brother-in-law) and Yingluck Shinawatra (Thaksin's sister), in January this year.

Democrats Abhisit Vejjajiva and Korn Chatikavanij have been calling for Temasek to come clean by revealing the identities of the Shin representative they negotiated the takeover with. This would ease public suspicion that Temasek colluded with Thaksin and/or his wife, Khunying Pojaman, in illegal share concealment, the politicians have said.

The fact that Thaksin and his family spent a four-day holiday in Singapore about three weeks before the Shin deal was announced adds to the urgency around this question.

"Caught Red-Handed" also makes the case that the Securities and Exchange Commission has been a tardy watchdog. It has yet to do its utmost to investigate who the ultimate owners of Ample Rich and Win Mark are because it has not yet questioned brokers and custodians (Asset Plus and UBS) about two issues that have yet to be investigated.

In June 1999 Thaksin transferred 32.9 million shares, or about 10 per cent, of Shin Corp to Ample Rich Investment, which he incorporated in the British Virgins Islands. After a share split, the number of shares multiplied to 329 million. It remains unclear how he managed to transfer the Shin stock from his local brokerage account to Ample Rich Investment, which was capitalised at only US$1.

There were no records of a financial transaction. But in effect, the transfer represented a capital outflow because were Ample Rich Investment to sell the stocks, the money would be sent to its overseas account. When Thaksin declared his assets, as required by law, he treated the Ample Rich Investment very ambiguously. There was no record in his asset declaration that he earned Bt329.2 million from his sale of the Shin stock to Ample Rich. Neither is it clear where Ample Rich got Bt329.2 million to buy the stocks from Thaksin.

"Caught Red-Handed" concludes that it is possible a transaction never occurred.

Another troubling issue involves Win Mark Limited, which was also set up by Thaksin in the British Virgin Islands. On August 2, 2000, Thaksin and Khunying Pojaman transferred shares in OAI Property, SC Office Park, Wroth Supply, SCK Estate and PT Corporation to Win Mark for Bt1.5 billion.

Thaksin later told the National Counter Corruption Commission that Win Mark was a foreign company owned by someone else. Later, it was found that Win Mark had the same address in the British Virgin Islands as Ample Rich - PO Box 3151, Road Town, Tortola.

"Caught Red-Handed" also raises questions about the owners of Value Asset Fund, Overseas Growth Fund and Offshore Dynamic Fund, which were set up in the Malaysian tax haven Labuan Island. The three funds, which held SC Asset stock, shared the same address - L 1, Lot 7, Blk F, Saguking Commercial Building, Lalan Patau, 8700 Labuan Ft, Malaysia.

The book quotes Prasong Lertratanavisuth of Matichon newspaper saying that the Shinawatra family could own the three funds without declaring them as its assets. Once the funds sold their SC Asset stock they could move the money out of the country without trace.

"Caught Red-handed" calls for the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Asset Plus, a local broker, over its role. Asset Plus must know the identities of the beneficiary owners of Overseas Growth Fund and Offshore Dynamic Fund, which were involved in the transactions.

The book also raises questions about the role of the Singapore office of UBS in allegedly concealing at least an additional 53.6 million Shin shares that belonged to the Shinawatra family.

Business Desk

The Nation