THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Former DSI chief gets suspended jail term for assets concealment

Former DSI chief gets suspended jail term for assets concealment

The former chief of the Department of Special Investigations, Tarit Pengdith, was on Friday given a suspended jail term and put on two year’s probation after pleading guilty to charges of concealing assets.

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders convened a session at the Supreme Court a 9.30am to hand down the ruling against Tarit.
The charges were laid in 2016 by the NACC National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for failing to declare his four bank accounts, a plot of land under his and his wife’s names, his shares in two companies, and two bank accounts under his and his wife’s names.
The NACC alleged that Tarit assigned his wife and a relative of his wife to take on the assets without informing the NACC.
On December 1 last year, the court read the charge to Tarit and he submitted a written statement pleading guilty to the court.
Before the court read the verdict on Friday, Tarit reaffirmed his guilty plea to the panel of judges.
The court ruled that Tarit intentionally withheld the information of his assets from the NACC and so was found guilty of assets concealment.
The court ruled that Tarit was prohibited from holding a state official post from April 3, 2017 when he left the post of an advisor to the PM’s Office. He was also banned from holding any political office for five years.
The court initially sentenced Tarit to six months in jail and imposed a fine of Bt10,000. Since Tarit had pleaded guilty, the court commuted the sentence by half to a three-month imprisonment and a fine of Bt5,000. Because this was Tarit’s first offence, the imprisonment was suspended and Tarit was put on probation for two years.
Tarit is also facing another trial in the Civil Court after the NACC suspected that he had unlawfully amassed Bt90 million worth of assets. The NACC froze the assets on March 10, 2016. Tarit and his wife are defending their assets in that action.

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