Korn said he had checked with some commercial banks and found that there are many ways to electronically transfer Bt2 billion out of the country without having to seek permission from the Bank of Thailand if they have business proof to show the bank.

"The central bank has to find out where the Bt20 billion is, said Korn, who was a senior financial-company executive before entering politics.

He said commercial banks had told him that a transfer of no more than US$50 million (about Bt1.75 billion) could be done without permission from the central bank.

Korn also said he was not convinced that the Bt20 billion were used to invest in the companies which belonged to Shinawatra family as claimed by Noppadon Pattama, legal adviser for ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. These companies have small registered capital and do not operate any business, he said.

"It is unreasonable because these companies belong to the Shinawatra family. It is a false claim to avoid having Bt20 billion frozen by the AEC. The authorities have to freeze the money in these companies if they really use it to buy the shares or increase capital, Korn said.

Governor of the Bank of Thailand Tarisa Watanagase had earlier said that she believed the Bt20 billion was still in the country because the central had not been asked to approve the transactions, which allow huge amount of money out of the country.

The Assets Examination Committee last week ordered a freeze on bank accounts of Thaksin and his family members worth Bt52.8 billion, citing sufficient evidence in its investigations into corruption allegations against him and the fact that Bt20 billion had been withdrawn from the accounts. The AEC said later that another Bt8 billion was unaccounted for from the bank accounts.

Noppadon later explained that all the Bt23.4 billion, and not Bt28 billion as reportedly by the AEC, had been accounted for. He said that Bt16.4 billion had been used to buy stocks in the real estate firms and the remaining Bt7 billion was deposited in bank accounts of Thaksin's children Panthongtae and Pinthongta.

The Nation