Ex-PM Thaksin’s son charged with money laundering

Bangkok: The only son of fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been formally charged with money laundering, the Department of Special Investigations said.

Panthongtae Shinawatra is accused of receiving a 10 million baht (RM1.26mil) cheque in 2004 related to an earlier corruption case involving 9.9 billion baht (RM1.25bil) of fraudulent loans extended by the state-owned Krungthai Bank when his father was prime minister.

The deputy spokesman of the Department of Special Investigation, Woranan Srilum, said Panthongtae turned himself in on Tuesday but was released as no arrest warrant for him has been issued.

Panthongtae could now gather evidence for his case, Woranan said, while the DSI must decide whether to take the case to the crim- inal court.

Panthongtae was not available for comment.

He complained this month of victimisation and called for the dropping of the money laundering investigation.

Supporters of the Shinawatras say the legal action is the latest bid by authorities in junta-ruled Thailand to squeeze the Shinawatra family out of politics and blunt its influence.

Recently, old cases against Thaksin have been revived, including an accusation that he abused power while he was prime minister by ordering the Export-Import Bank of Thailand to give low interest loans to Myanmar in 2006 to further his business interests.

In another case, Thaksin was accused of graft and negligence in connection with the approval of a lottery scheme in 2003.

Authorities are also looking to charge him with royal insult and computer crime for an interview he gave to South Korean media in 2015.

Watcharapol Prasanrajkit, chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, denied any bid to target the Shinawatras saying the cases just happened to be coming up at this time.