Pinthongta tells court she made money moves

In her testimony at the Supreme Court, Pinthongta insisted she built up her share of the Bt76 billion in family wealth from seed money worth Bt370 million given to her by Pojaman as a birthday gift.

She categorically denied acting as a nominee for Thaksin and Pojaman in the sale of her family's controlling stakes in Shin Corp to Temasek, the Singapore state investment firm. She said she retained the sale earnings in her bank accounts and that her parents had no involvement with her funds.

"My share of the family's wealth is Bt23.5 billion kept in six bank accounts plus Bt218 million in unit trusts and I am the sole owner of my funds," she said.

She appeared cheerful upon arriving at the court accompanied by her mother and her older brother Panthongtae.

The prosecution contends the seized assets worth Bt76 billion are Thaksin's ill-gotten gains stashed in the names of 22 family members and associates, including Pinthongta.

In her rebuttal, Pinthongta said she had full control over her wealth and that Thaksin had no influence over her business decisions.

She recounted how she had accumulated her wealth. With the seed money from her mother in 2002, she first bought Shin shares from Panthongtae in two separate transactions.

She said she was not liable to pay income tax because of an exemption for a parental gift. She also admitted Panthongtae granted a concession as an older brother to sell her shares at par value.

She said like other family members, she never attended shareholders' meetings since her family had designated an advisory team to represent their business interests.

In explaining why she and her brother sold Shin shares to Temasek via an investment firm Ample Rich, she said the transaction paved the way for the funds to be paid and retained in Thailand instead of Singapore.

Ample Rich, which acted as a holding firm to manage the shares held by her family, also managed her investments made from dividend payments between 2003 and 2005.

She said the Assets Examination Company had made a wrongful decision to seek the seizure of her assets. On the one hand the AEC was demanding that she pay Bt5 billion in tax liabilities incurred from her transactions. On the other, it was saying she was a Thaksin nominee with no real control over the shares.

She insisted she was responsible for providing the seed money to buy the Manchester City Football Club. She said she wanted her father to have something to occupy his time while living in exile.

The proceeds from the subsequent sale of the football club were reinvested in a diamond mine in Africa, she said.

Neither she nor her family stashed their wealth abroad as alleged, she said. The property she owns in London is an apartment valued around Bt60 million to Bt70 million, she said.

Her mother owns a London home worth about Bt200 million, she added.

She said she was willing to cooperate with the AEC investigation into her family's wealth, but changed her mind after a seven-hour session without a lawyer in which AEC members tried to coerce her to answer the way they wanted.

She refused to give a statement during the investigation and claimed a right to testify in court.

Faced with a barrage of questions during the prosecution's cross examination, she appeared under stress and close to bursting into tears.

After she was excused from the witness stand, she quickly walked to her mother.

Before leaving the courtroom, Pojaman said she and her children felt relief after giving the court their side of the story.

"I am relieved and expect justice to prevail," she said, referring to her testimony on Wednesday and her daughter's statement.