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Published on March 21, 2008

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Ekamol becoming an independent director and chairman of the board of directors of Seamico Securities on March 14. On the same day, the designation of Bernard Pouliot was changed from director and chairman to director and vice chairman.

Ekamol, a sharp-tongued financier, is among the veteran pioneers of Thailand's securities watchdog, where he served as the secretary-general before he was forced to resign.

Several years before the 1997 crisis emerged, Ekamol was the key man taking legal action against alleged big-time share-price manipulator Song Watcharasriroj.

Ekamol was then under much pressure on the case by the SEC and he was forced to resign.

In 2002, Song and company were let off the hook as the statute of limitations on the stock-manipulation case expired, resulting in a legal inability to bring the case to court.

Song, a former big-time stock-market player, and eight accomplices were charged back in 1992 during the heyday of the Thai capital markets for manipulating the shares of Krisada Mahanakorn.

In 1996, police at the Economic Crime Investigation Division managed to wrap up the charges against Song and company for public prosecutors to take further action. During the proceedings the defendants were granted bail pending trial but they later fled abroad.

More than six years passed and the public was informed that the statute of limitations on this case - the biggest of its kind in the history of the SEC - expired on October 7, 2002.

Ekamol intended to return to work at the Bank of Thailand (BOT), where he earlier served as deputy governor and other positions for more than 10 years, but his proposal was blocked by politicians. After that he left the financial community.

Ekamol was also reported as having close ties with the Democrat Party. Former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai invited him to join the party list. He was also an adviser to former finance minister Tarrin Nimanahaeminda from the Democrat Party.

Ekamol graduated with an MBA in finance from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under a scholarship from the BOT. He is now an adviser to several leading companies.

The Nation