Rai Som in the crosshairs
Amlo targets money trail of Sorrayuth firm
The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) is gearing up efforts to trace the financial records of a media company run by TV news anchor Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda to look for possible irregularities in the firm’s operation.
The move comes after the Nation Associate Anti-Corruption Network (NACN) yesterday lodged a petition with Amlo to probe Rai Som Co’s money trail back to 2003.
The petition was filed by NACN secretary-general Mongkolkit Suksintharanon and member, Phaka-orn Jantarakana, with Amlo chief Seehanart Prayoonrat.
Sorrayuth and his company, Rai Som, were found guilty of cheating the Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand (MCOT) out of more than 138 million baht in advertising revenue during his news talk programme on Channel 9 in 2005 and 2006 by bribing an MCOT employee to conceal records of extra advertising.
He was sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison and was released on bail. He is appealing the ruling.
Pol Col Seehanart said the investigation will be split into two stages.
The first will probe whether the full amount of the embezzled money was repaid to MCOT. If full payment has been made, there is no need to seize the company’s assets, he said.
The second stage concerns the NACN’s petition asking Amlo to trace the firm’s financial records back to 2003.
The investigation needs the cooperation of other private parties to determine whether there were any other offences in the case or other contracts, Pol Col Seehanart said.
The probe, Pol Col Seehanart added, could take some time because several years of the company’s financial records need to be examined.
Pol Col Seehanart insisted Amlo will work transparently.
Mr Mongkolkit said he wants Amlo to examine all contracts between Rai Som Co and MCOT to determine whether any damage has been caused to the state.
The probe should also look into the possibility that contracts were obtained through rigged bids, he said.
Mr Mongkolkit said he also wants the Department of Special Investigation to look into possible irregularities in several other Rai Som contracts.
He also called on the National AntiCorruption Commission to investigate whether other companies doing business with Rai Som are implicated in the embezzlement scandal.
Ms Phaka-orn said the NACN represents civic networks which support the suppression of corruption and the Rai Som case should serve as a lesson to others.
Rai Som’s transaction details are needed to determine if the company obtained assets illegally, she said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, who is in charge of MCOT, said he learned that MCOT had filed a civil suit against Rai Som Co and the case has now gone to court.
Sorrayuth quit his role as a news presenter on Thursday.
The move came after several companies withdrew advertising from TV programmes he hosted. Media bodies, academics and anti-corruption advocates ramped up calls for him to step down.
Anti-Corruption Thailand (ACT) secretary-general Mana Nimitmongkol said the anti-corruption advocacy network stopped putting pressure on Channel 3 and Sorrayuth after the news anchor stepped down.
Somphob Ratanawalee, news director of Workpoint TV, said he believed Sorrayuth decided to step down because of mounting pressure from advertising agencies, which could hurt Channel 3.
It will be interesting to see whether the same approach is applied to other problematic media personalities, Mr Somphob said in a seminar on media ethics yesterday.
Phana Thongmeekhom, a member of the Culture Ministry’s National Committee on Safe and Creative Media Development, called on the media to come up with clearer ethics guidelines.
Thai Broadcast Journalists Association deputy president Supan Rakcher said the organisation did not take a biased approach in calling for problematic media personalities to be held accountable.
The association upholds the principle of responsibility-based freedom, he said.
Surin Krittayaphongphun, executive vice-president of BEC World Plc, the operator of Channel 3, conceded Sorrayuth was a major draw for viewers on Channel 3.
He said it was premature to judge whether his departure would have an impact on advertising revenue.
Bring me the head of Sorrayuth. Bring me the severed head of the anchorman/briber, newscaster/corrupter, interviewer/ public villain No.1. The hero became the anti-hero, and Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda had his head served on a silver platter after the collective wrath of graft-haters smoked him out of his chair. Corruption must be combatted, cheaters must be called out and shamed. Yes, we beat him, we beat corruption! And our weapons in this war are something equally disturbing, such as hatred, polemics and swift, satisfying anger.
Should Sorrayuth leave? Of course. The court found the anchorman and his company guilty of cheating more than 138 million baht in advertising revenue from Channel 9, and of bribing a clerk to cover up the incriminating documents. As a media person, his crime compromised his integrity. As a hard-talking interviewer who had policy-makers and officials on his show, his actions disqualified him from the role of TV interrogator. There was no doubt he should step down, and it was right that he did on Thursday after the outpouring of ire and condemnation from media bodies and moral guardians. One of them described the whole thing as “moral degradation” — as if she had just arrived in Thailand yesterday and didn’t know how this country operates.
Bring me the head of Sorrayuth. Also bring me the heads of parents who bribe to get their little kids into top schools (the new term is coming up, so get ready to “donate”). Bring me the heads of the experts who bought GT200, the Holy Grail of military gear. Bring me the heads of the billionaires who busily doctor their ledgers during tax season. Also bring me the heads of appointed officials who appoint their sons and wives as consultants. If there’s room, bring me the heads of other journalists found guilty of criminal charges who still appear in the news. In fact, bring me the heads of everyone and turn us into a headless nation, for that is our fate, so present and inexcusable.
Let’s not get into a hypocritical debate, because one crime doesn’t cancel out another (Sorrayuth should stay home and watch Spotlight, the Oscar’s Best Picture winner about good journalism, or better yet, he should invite the upstanding journalists to join him).
What intrigued me, however, is the intensity of rage projected against Sorrayuth. Why is he so hated? This is a confusing irony since he was supposed to be the country’s most popular anchorman, with his voice playing the soundtrack of our mornings for more than a decade, whether we wanted to hear it or not. Aside from online critics and harsh words from media professional bodies, one of the most vociferous attackers was the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT), a staunch crusader against the evil that plagues our land except when the evil is not, well, so evil. Last year when the ACT put together the Museum of Corruption, a surreal showcase of scandalous kickback sagas featuring Soviet-style sculptures and an interactive website, they included Sorrayuth’s case in the catalogue of shame, even though the court hadn’t ruled on it yet. He was judged by the “museum” back then, along with other cases.
One of the war cries championed by anti-corruption fighters goes, “Cheaters must not have a place to stand”. Sure, then all of us would lose our footing. Corruption is named the greatest obstacle to our progress, and the way to fight it, in a sustainable fashion, is to enshrine democratic institutions and strengthen the tools that govern the relationship between the private sector and government officials (Sorrayuth is guilty of paying bribes to a clerk in a state agency, and who knows, maybe to someone else). Corruption, in short, must be fixed through the system, not necessarily through mob mentality and fleeting righteousness mixed with political anger. It should be fought by tightening up the system that still allows us to pay tea money to policemen, bureaucrats, schools and politicians to smooth our path. The system that allows officials to pocket “differences” and that shape our thinking that anything can be fixed if you know the right person.
Sorrayuth’s show is well-known for its rong took section, in which viewers write in to complain about their woes, usually ones that are ignored by state agencies or stuck in a tangle of red tape. It is believed that if your story gets aired on his show, it’s likely that some state official will rush in to help you. Why don’t these people write to the police or to the agencies directly? Well, maybe they don’t know the “right person” who can fix the problem for them. So sure, bring us the head of Sorrayuth, we can rest assured that our society is clean and uncorrupted now.