DSI's new super-car list targets rich
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Several high-profile figures are on the newly released list of owners of reassembled luxury vehicles that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) says it will check to determine if any are involved in tax evasion.
Among those listed are Thongmakut Thongyai, CEO of SCB Securities, and AVM Chaiyapruk Didyasarin.
Pol Lt-Colonel Korawat Panprapakorn, a senior official at DSI, revealed the “big names” to reporters yesterday.
These names were assembled from among owners of reassembled vehicles worth more than Bt4 million at today’s market rates.
The new list follows the 488 names released on Monday, who the DSI said, would be required to bring in their luxury cars for inspection.
Sergeant Worapoj Phetkhum, owner of a luxury car on Monday’s list, said he would take legal action against the seller if inspection of his Mazda RX8 sports car shows it had been modified to avoid taxes.
“I bought it more than a year ago for Bt1.3million. It’s a second-hand car,” Worapoj said.
The DSI has launched a serious investigation into tax-evading vehicles after nobody stepped forward to claim ownership of the six luxury cars that mysteriously caught fire on a transporter late last month.
Among the six vehicles was a Bentley with trading plates that were initially linked to a company called Born to Run Co Ltd. However, the company claimed it had no knowledge of the car.
Born To Run’s representative, Siriporn Darak, met with DSI investigators yesterday to clear up any doubts about her firm’s involvement. She was accompanied by her lawyer Pissanu Panichsuk.
“We have never used the trading plates found on the Bentley in question.
“We hope our testimonies will be useful to the DSI investigation and assist the department in discovering the truth about the vehicle,” Pissanu said.
He added that the firm had hired someone called Sudburi Prom-thamma to acquire 50 trading plates in 2009 and did not know if he had used the firm’s documents in getting more plates than the agreed number.
“Let’s prove the matter first – it will be fairer to both sides,” said Pissanu.
Korawat said the DSI would summon Sudburi for questioning, because available records at the firm showed none of the 50 plates matched the registered number of the plate found on the Bentley.
“We will also submit the license plate found on the Bentley to the Land Transport Department for inspection,” Korawat said.
