B1bn in BBC assets seized from Saxena
The Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) has seized assets worth over one billion baht owned by Indian-born ex-financier Rakesh Saxena, who is charged with embezzling money from the now-defunct Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BBC).
Thursday 15 March 2012, 02:04PM
Acting Secretary-General of the Anti-Money Laundering Office, Pol Col Sihanart Prayoonrat, said that the panel’s meeting on Thursday March 1 has assigned officials to examine assets involving the embezzlement case of Saxena, former senior adviser of the BBC.
Saxena has been indicted on 24 charges of conspiring in the embezzlement case, approving unauthorised loans and fabricating accounts, as well as establishing bogus loans that saw the BBC lose US$48 billion (B1,440 billion) and foreign currency worth a total of $85 million (B2.55 billion).
Mr Sihanart noted that AMLO has seized Saxena’s overseas assets, worth over B1 billion, and will proceed with the seizure of the assets of other defendants such as former BBC president Krikkiet Chaleejandra, and relatives involved in the cases.
As for the development in the proceedings to seize assets of the Transport Ministry’s Former Permanent Secretary Supoj Saplom, he stated that AMLO still cannot do so as it is waiting for the National Anti-Corruption Commissioner’s decision about arraignment against him.
Charged in Thailand with embezzlement from 1994 to 1995, Saxena was deported to Thailand from Canada in October 2009, after the longest extradition battle in Canadian history, lasting 13 years.
Saxena became adviser to Mr Krikkiet, then the new senior vice-president of BBC, in 1989.
The bank collapsed in 1996, contributing to the Asian financial recession, economic and political crisis that followed the 1997 devaluation of the baht.
In June 1996, Thai authorities charged Saxena, Mr Krikkiet and others with embezzling money estimated to total US$2.2 billion (B66 billion).
Saxena himself allegedly siphoned off US$470 million (B14.4 billion) in 1992-1993 through a string of derivative transactions.
In his defence, Saxena said that he was just an adviser and a trader, and that the collapse of the real estate markets was the real trigger of the recession.
–TAN
