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Published on August 29, 2007

The Bank of Thailand did not find any irregularities in money transfered overseas by 200 companies and individuals on a list that the Assets Examination Committee requested to be checked, a senior bank official said yesterday.

Suchat Sakkankosone, director of the central bank's exchange control and credits department, said the bank had submitted its findings to the special anti-graft panel.

He said the transactions were made from January this year until recently.

Amounts allowed to be transferred are between US$20,000 (Bt688,000) and $1 million for individuals and $50 million to $100 million for companies, according to Suchat.

Most of the transactions, he said, were in small amounts each day and not large sums that needed the central bank's special permission.

The AEC had asked the central bank to check money sent overseas by companies and individuals including family members of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, according to a source on the committee.

The committee made the request a week or two ago, the source said.

Meanwhile, an AEC source said yesterday that the central bank could easily check if the money that Thaksin used to buy Manchester City Football Club was from Thailand or from his assets kept abroad.

The AEC has found that Bt1.7 billion was transferred from the accounts of two of Thaksin's children, Pinthongta and Panthongtae Shinawatra. The source of the rest of the money has yet to be checked.

If the central bank finds that the money used in buying the football club was from his assets kept overseas, the National Counter Corruption Commis-sion can check if Thaksin correctly filed his asset declaration.

False assets declaration is a constitutional offence.

Thaksin's legal adviser Noppadon Pattama said the former premier can prove the money used in buying the football club was legally earned and the United Kingdom has strict laws on checking money transferred into the country.

Auditor-General Khunying Jaruwan Maintaka said her panel was still tracing the whereabouts of Bt8 billion in proceeds from the Shin Corp sale - in order to place a freeze on it.

She added it was difficult to trace since most of the money was in the form of cashier cheques.

Another source in the AEC said that the panel's request to the central bank was part of its investigation by its subcommittee on Thaksin's possible conflicts of interest during his tenure as prime minister.

The subcommittee is headed by Klanarong Chanthik, who is a member of the National Coun-ter Corruption Commission.

"The AEC earlier was convinced that the investigation could lead to a new round of asset freezes [on Thaksin's family's bank accounts] in addition to the case on the Shin Corp share sale," the source said.

Budsarakham    Sinlapalavan,

 Bancha Khaengkhan

 The Nation