Thaksin's niece guilty of filing false asset statement, gets 5-year ban
The Supreme Court Friday removed a daughter of former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat as an MP and placed her under five-year political ban for making a false asset declaration.
The Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office found Chinnicha Wongsawat guilty of failing to declare her debt worth Bt100 million upon assuming position as a Pheu Thai MP.
The court initially sentenced Chinnicha to two months in jail but suspended the jail term for a year on the grounds that she has never been in prison. She was also fined Bt4,000.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission filed the suit against Chinnicha , alleging that she had falsified her asset statement to the NACC when she took office as an MP.
The NACC learned of Chinnicha’s Bt100 million debt to Bannapot Damapong only after Chinnicha informed the Supreme Court that she owned only part of Bt46 billion worth of assets that the NACC asked the court to seize from former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
After Chinnicha lodged a protest against the seizing of Bt100 million, then senator Ruangkrai Likijwatana filed a complaint against her with the NACC.
Chinnichai then filed another report with the NACC stating she owed Bt100 million to Bannaphot on October 31 2008, about eight months after she became a Chiang Mai MP.
In Chinnicha’s argument to the Supreme Court, she said she thought she did not have declare the debt because the assets had been ordered seized by the Assets Examination Committee.
But the court ruled that Chinnicha intended to conceal her debt and chose to punish her by impeachment and banning her for politics for five years.
