Court sentences Saxena to 10 years in jail, Bt1 million in fines
Rakesh Saxena, a former bank adviser, faces 10 years in prison and has to pay a fine of Bt1 million for approving bad loans.
Saxena, a 59-year-old Indian national, was found to be involved with fraudulent bank dealings worth Bt1.66 billion, which led to the collapse of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce in the 1997 financial crisis. He was first charged in 1996, but it was only in 2009 that he was extradited from Canada, where he had fled.
The Bangkok Criminal Court said yesterday that Saxena had “damaged the country’s economy”.
Wisit Wisitsoraart, chief of the Legal Execution Department, said his office had retrieved Bt415 million from Swiss bank accounts as part of operations related to the failed Bangkok Bank of Commerce.
He said his department, in cooperation with the Office of the Attorney-General and the Bank of Thailand, had traced the embezzled assets to Switzerland, where they had been hidden by Saxena, Krirk-kiat Jalichandra and other former BBC executives.
Wisit said another Bt100 million or so would be returned to Thailand later, adding that this money would be used to repay the bank creditors. The department is also looking for money hidden in Canada.
Wisit added that, so far, Bt686 million had been collected from auctions and the money would be returned to 14 financial institutions.
