NACC queries Arisman's wife on TV shares
Rapipan tells anti-graft agency she had no knowledge of husband's Bt2-million holding in D Station satellite-TV
The wife of red-shirt leader Arisman Pongruangrong is being investigated by the anti-graft agency for failure to report her husband's shareholding in the company that runs the red shirts' Asia Update satellite-TV station.
Rapipan Pongruangrong, who is a party-list MP of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, told The Nation she was unaware that Arisman was holding 200,000 shares worth Bt2 million in D Station Co Ltd. She said he did not tell her about his shareholding after while on the run abroad following the 2010 unrest.
“I informed the NACC that I had no intention of concealing the shareholding. I really did not know that he owned the shares,” Rapipan said, referring to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
“At that time [when she put in her financial report after last year’s election], my family was in a severe crisis. Khun Kee [Arisman] was in a foreign country and he did not tell me about the shares,” she said. “Normally he does not tell me about his problems. He is afraid I may be bothered.”
Arisman, one of the hardline red-shirts, fled the country and was spotted in Cambodia following 10 weeks of unrest that led to riots in Bangkok and left 91 people dead and about 2,000 injured. He surrendered to police after Pheu Thai won the election and returned to power.
The Constitution requires members of Parliament to report to the NACC their personal assets and those belonging to their spouses and underage children. Anyone found to have intentionally submitted false statements about their financial status can be punished by dismissal from office and a five-year ban from politics.
Rapipan said Arisman told her later he had asked some unnamed party seniors, who advised him there was no need to report the shareholding as the company’s business was suspended by the Centre for Resolution of the Emergency Situation during the previous government.
“In fact, the company was not closed down. The CRES only ordered suspension of the station’s broadcasts,” she explained.
She said it would depend on the NACC whether they would seek to dismiss her for failing to report her husband’s shares.
According to Ministry of Commerce records, Arisman has held the shares in D Station since May 7, 2009, and still held them as of April 30. The shares were previously owned by Noppadon Pattama, who is a legal adviser to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Rapipan said she did not know how Arisman obtained the shares from Noppadon.
A source from the NACC said the agency was collecting details on the case. The Department of Business Development had been asked to provide information about D Station.
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