KMITL former execs face new charges

TWO FORMER top executives of the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) and a former bank manager are facing additional charges for allegedly stealing Bt689 million from the institute. 
The charges are separate from the alleged Bt1.6-billion embezzlement for which they have faced charges since 2015.
 “We have received an additional complaint that these three suspects also illegitimately took a further Bt689 million from the KMITL,” Pol Colonel Thongchai Yookes, a superintendent at the Crimes Suppression Division, said yesterday. 
The suspects are Tawil Puangma, a former KMITL president, Sunpasit Limnararat, a former KMITL vice president, and Kongrit Singkote, a former manager at Siam Commercial Bank’s Suvarnabhumi branch. 
Thongchai said police had already investigated the complaint and found convincing evidence and the court approved their arrest warrants last Thursday. 
Tawil and Sunpasit are charged with colluding in theft, document forgery and abuse of authority. 
Kongrit is charged with theft, document forgery and abetting officials in theft. 
Tawil, 63, was arrested at his home in Bangkok’s Lat Krabang district, Kongrit, 52, at a market in Khon Kaen’s Muang district, and Sunpasit, 53, at his home in Nonthaburi province. 
Police questioned them for more than six hours but they denied any wrongdoing. 
Tawil said he would only address the issue in court. 
Police have called on the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases to ask for permission to detain them. So far. Tawil and Kongrit have managed to get bails.
In the 2015 case, Tawil and Sunpasit were charged along with five alleged accomplices for embezzling Bt1.6 billion from the KMITL. While their alleged accomplices have been detained in prison pending trial, Tawil and Sunpasit were released on bail. 
However, the KMITL has decided to file a new complaint against them, as well as Kongrit, based on new evidence of an additional Bt689 million that was allegedly stolen. 
Tawil lost his top post at the KMITL in late 2015 after an inquiry concluded that he had committed a grave disciplinary offence in changing his son’s grades during his term as president. 
His son was an engineering student at KMITL at that time but has since been dismissed.