My son owns Seattle luxury house, Chadchart clarifies

Chadchart issued the clarification regarding ownership of the house on South Jackson Street in an interview on “Inside Thailand” programme broadcast on Kom Chad Luek TV after the picture of the house was widely shared on social networks.

The posts say the house has two floors and 3,250 square feet of space with four bedrooms and three toilet rooms as well as lawns and trees around the house. The posts said the house was worth 72 million baht. Critics have wondered whether Chadchart had mentioned the house in his assets declaration to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).

Chadchart thanked the TV programme for giving him a chance to explain the issue.

Chadchart said he did not mention the Seattle house earlier, or how it was acquired, because he did not hold a political position after he had purchased the asset.

He explained that he had bought the house for US$1.4 million seven years ago, so the house was worth about Bt40 million when he bought it with his son’s money.

Explaining further, he said seven years ago and he and his twin brother had got two rai (0.32 hectare) of land on Rama V Road as an inheritance. After sharing half the plot with his brother, he transferred the ownership of his share of the plot to his son. At that time, he had declared the land inheritance to the NACC clearly.

Chadchart said the land was later sold and his son went to study in the United States. At that time, property in the US was not expensive. He considered that buying a house for his son was better than keeping the money in the bank, as the interest rate was low at that time.

He said he had to buy the house in his wife’s name because his son had not reached the legal age at that time to acquire a property.

He said he bought the house because his wife also had to stay with his son to take care of him during his study.

Chadchart said he had planned to sell the house now that his son has finished his studies, but a law firm in Seattle recommended him to transfer its ownership to his son for lower tax liability.

As a result, he transferred the ownership from his wife to his son in preparation to sell it later.

“There is clear evidence for all the transactions and they can be verified online. My son is the real owner because we used his money to buy it. This is a straightforward matter,” Chadchart said.

He added that he had made the right decision to buy the house as its price had now risen to over US$2 million.

“I hereby affirm that I have done nothing wrong. I have clear evidence. I have informed the NACC about the land inheritance. I have evidence that I transferred the land ownership to my son. I have an evidence of a court order for us to take care of the money from the land sale on behalf of his son because Sanpiti had not reached legal age at that time,” Chadchart said.

“When the house was bought, we transferred his money to buy it and we have evidence of the transaction. You can also check at what price we bought the house.”