PM backs Nalinee despite US blacklist

The US Embassy declined direct comment on Nalinee, but a spokesperson said the blacklist that bore her name has not expired. The blacklist, which can be accessed online, remained unchanged.

Information provided by the embassy in relation to the blacklist showed Nalinee faces tough sanctions that practically prevent her from conducting any financial transactions with US citizens, companies, their representatives or branches.

How that tough law would affect Nalinee’s political status remains to be seen, but Yingluck insisted that, as of now, the new Cabinet member remains qualified for the position of PM’s Office minister as long as her US blacklisting over Zimbabwean sanctions does not contravene Thai constitutional law.

 

Links with Grace Mugabe 

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) put Nalinee’s name on the blacklist for her alleged links to a number of financial, real-estate and gem-related transactions on behalf of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace Mugabe, and other Zimbabweans with specially designated national (SDN) status.

The listing means American citizens or entities are prohibited from doing business with Nalinee and her assets would be frozen if they came under US jurisdiction. It is not spelt out in the Treasury Department’s rules governing the blacklist whether she can enter the United States, but tough restrictions preventing blacklisted persons from doing business with any American in the US or abroad seem like a virtual ban in themselves.

Nalinee’s status under US law would not reflect on the image of the Thai Cabinet, Yingluck said. But the prime minister hinted that a review of the whole situation is likely.

“We have to check the facts about the list…. but at this stage her qualification is constitutional,” Yingluck said.

Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul said he was not aware of Nalinee’s SDN listing and the Foreign Ministry had nothing to do with the matter. As long as the listing was a product of the US Treasury Department, the responsibility for dealing with the US lay with the Thai Finance Ministry, he said.

The Foreign Ministry would help coordinate with the US if the Finance Ministry requested and deemed it necessary, he said.

Zimbabwean honorary consul Kriangsak Charoenwongsak said he personally knew Nalinee very well, as she had done business with Zimbabwe for a long time. The SDN list was simply an international political matter as the US wanted to use the sanction to pressure Zimbabwe and its president, he said. “It …. has nothing to do with the qualifications of a Thai minister,” said Kriangsak, who is a former Democrat MP. Nalinee was a good person and had strong qualifications to be a minister, Kriangsak said.

Thailand should not be oversensitive to this matter and the country should maintain friendly relations with all for the national interest, he said. To link this issue with a ministerial post was a political move to discredit the government, he said.

Anti-Money Laundering Office acting secretary-general Police Colonel Seehanat Prayoonrat said yesterday the US had never requested information about Nalinee as it did not wish to interfere in another country’s affairs. However, even if the US had asked for information from AMLO, he would not have supplied it, as there had been no evidence of money laundering according to Thai laws.