Appeal Court upholds 3-year jail term for ex-minister Benja

THE COURT of appeals has upheld a lower court’s three-year jail sentence for Benja Louichareon, a former deputy finance minister, who abused her authority to help Panthongtae and Pinthongta Shinawatra evade income taxes.
Benja and three other former Revenue Department officials and an aide were not released yesterday and had to spend the night in a temporary detention centre awaiting their bid for the Supreme Court to review the case. Besides Benja, three other former officials – Chamras Yaemsoithong, Molirat Bunyasiri, and Krit Vipulanusas – as well as Pranee Vejpuekpitak, an aide to Khunying Pojaman Na Prompet’s secretary, were found guilty in the case.
The two children of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra sold shares of Shin Corp but did not pay taxes with Benja’s help, according to the verdict.
Benja, who was deputy finance minister of the Yingluck Shinawatra government, was ruled guilty along with four other persons who were former senior officials of the Revenue Department.
As a former deputy chief of the Revenue Department, Benja violated Article 157 of the Criminal Code causing damages to the state.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission filed the charges against Benja and other persons who allegedly helped Panthongtae and Pinthongta to evade taxes on the sale of Shin shares in 2006.
Each of them purchased 164 million shares at Bt1 each and sold them at the market price of Bt49.25 per share. They should have paid income taxes amounting to Bt7.9 billion each. 
The lower court ruled in July 2016 that Benja and three other persons were guilty and sentenced them to a three-year jail term.
The appeal court said in a statement upholding the lower court’s verdict that there are no grounds for a suspended jail term. Individuals can forward their case to the Supreme Court for a final review if there are issues related to facts of the case and of one of the judges of the appeal court endorses their bid.