Thais want Thaksin asset freeze over Man City deal

By Chalathip Thirasoonthrakul

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's anti-graft body said on Wednesday that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra may have bought Premier League football club Manchester City with money he had deliberately hidden from the government.

The Asset Examination Committee (AEC), set up by coup leaders after the last year's bloodless putsch, said the money Thaksin used to acquire Manchester City was never mentioned in the asset declarations all Thai politicians have to make.

"The former prime minister has abused his power by concealing his shares and converting them into cash," committee member Kaewsun Atibhodhi told a news conference.

"Therefore we need to find additional measures to freeze more of his assets both domestically and overseas," he said. "We call this an unusually rich case, in which he can't explain how he has obtained those assets."

The AEC ordered commercial banks last month to freeze 73 billion baht (1.06 billion pounds) of Thaksin's money in domestic accounts, accusing him of amassing wealth during five years in office by abusing his power.

Kaewsun, who heads a panel probing Thaksin, a telecommunications billionaire, did not say what additional power the committee would seek or how it could get overseas banks to help identify and freeze Thaksin's assets.

The AEC also ruled on Wednesday that Thaksin had ordered a state bank illegally to provide a soft loan to military-ruled Myanmar for satellite equipment it was buying from a Thai firm in which Thaksin's family was a major shareholder.

Viroj Laohaphand, head of the Myanmar loan panel, told reporters Thaksin's order to the bank to lend the Myanmar government 1 billion baht on top of 3 billion baht initially agreed had cost the taxpayer 100 million baht.  Continued...