Gov't freezes more of Thaksin's assets

An anti-graft panel yesterday ordered 8 billion baht ($245.7 million) in assets belonging to the family of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra frozen, following up a similar action it took last week.

The Asset Examination Committee had already frozen 52.88 billion baht ($1.63 billion) believed to be proceeds from the Shinawatra family's 73.3 billion baht ($1.9 billion) sale last year of telecommunications company Shin Corp to Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, a Singapore state investment company. It alleged there was reason to believe the deal involved corruption.

Sak Korsaengruang said the committee determined that the 8 billion baht had been shifted out of the earlier frozen bank accounts shortly before the order was issued covering them.