Two Panthongtae associates face arrest after skipping country before indictment hearing
Two co-defendants in a money-laundering case against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s son Panthongtae face arrest warrants after they failed to meet public prosecutors as summoned.
The Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases endorsed a Department of Special Investigation (DSI) request for arrest warrants on Monday after Kanchanapa Honghern and her husband Wanchai were found to have left the country, DSI director-general Paisit Wongmuang said yesterday.
He said the couple had been summoned by public prosecutors to hear a decision whether to indict them on October 31 but they failed to show up on that day.
Public prosecutors then asked the DSI to find the two suspects for legal prosecution. Authorities later found that the couple left for Hong Kong on October 5.
Paisit said the DSI would track down the current whereabouts of the couple. It would then be the duty of the Attorney General’s Office to request their extradition from the country involved, he added.
Kanchanapa, previously the personal secretary of Panthongtae’s mother Khunying Pojaman Na Pombejra, and Wanchai were charged along with Panthongtae with money laundering for receiving cheques in connection with the Krungthai Bank loan scandal.
On October 10, Panthongtae was indicted for obtaining a cheque for Bt10 million that was part of Bt10 billion in loans that the property group, Krisada Mahanakorn, had obtained dishonestly from the state-run bank when his father was serving as prime minister.