Supreme Court jails Benja for helping Thaksin kin
The Supreme Court has sentenced Benja Louischareon, former deputy finance minister and ex-deputy chief of the Revenue Department, to two years in jail without suspension for helping the Shinawatra family evade almost 16 billion baht in tax related to the sale and purchase of Shin Corp shares.
The sentence was commuted from three years.
The ruling, read out in the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct yesterday, also reduced the prison sentences by one year for three other former Revenue Department officials for their role in the same case.
The case is related to Shin
Corp shares bought in 2006 by Panthongtae and Pinthongta Shinawatra, the children of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, from Ample Rich, an offshore holding company controlled by the Shinawatra family.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) filed a lawsuit on Dec 3, 2015, accusing Benja, who was deputy finance minister in the Yingluck Shinawatra administration; Chamras Yamsoithong and Moreerat
Boonyasiri, former legal affairs directors; and Krit Vipulanusat, the then-legal affairs director, of malfeasance in helping Thaksin’s children to avoid paying tax on the deal.
Pranee Vejpruekpitak, former secretary to Thaksin’s ex-wife Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra, was also accused of supporting malfeasance.
The case stemmed from the siblings’ purchase of 164.6 million Shin Corp shares at a par value of 1 baht in 2006, when the shares were actually priced at 49.25 baht. The NACC insisted that the pair each pay tax based on the shares’ earnings of 7.94 billion baht, or 15.88 billion baht in total.
By helping the duo evade taxes, the four defendants had caused damage to the Revenue Department, the Finance Ministry and the civil service, the NACC argued.
The defendants denied the charges. In July 2016, the court of first instance sentenced the four former officials to three years in prison for malfeasance and Pranee to two years in jail for the offence. The defendants appealed the ruling and were granted bail.
In October, 2017, the Appeal Court upheld the lower court’s rulings, and when the defendants appealed the judgements, they were released on a bail guarantee of 500,000 baht each.
The five defendants arrived at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct to hear the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday.
The court upheld the five’s convictions for serious misconduct, saying they did not deserve having their sentences suspended.
However, the court commuted the terms of the first four defendants to two years, saying they had provided useful testimony. However, the court upheld the term given to Pranee.