Justice minister sets up expert panel to unravel Stark fraud case
Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong has set up a committee to investigate the modus operandi of the executives of the disgraced Stark Corporation Plc in defrauding the public and engaging in money laundering, so that shareholders could be protected in the future.
Tawee on Tuesday appointed Pichai Nilthongkham, former chief justice of the Bankruptcy Court and an expert in financial and stock cases, as the chairman of the committee.
The committee’s nine working members include the director-general of the Department of Special Investigation, a representative of the Office of the Attorney-General, a representative of the Royal Thai Police and representatives of Stark’s shareholders.
Apart from the chairman and nine members, the DSI’s director of the financial, banking and money laundering division will serve as the committee’s secretary with four deputies.
Tawee said the Stark case had inflicted severe damage on the public, estimated at 14.778 billion baht. He said the manner in which the fraud was perpetrated needed to be looked into to prevent similar crimes in the future.
The minister’s order setting up the committee said the panel would unravel the executives’ mode of defrauding the public in both facts and legal technicalities. This would help draft policies and measures for the DSI to carry out investigations in the future and for state agencies in charge of the stock exchange to set up a monitoring and warning system.
Tawee said the results of the study and subsequent measures should increase the stability and credibility of the Thai stock market in the future.
On Monday, Chanin Yensudchai, the former chairman of Stark Corporation Plc, was charged in court with public deception, fraud and money laundering that had inflicted billions of baht in losses on shareholders.
The Stark fraud case was named a special case by the DSI on June 20, 2023, involving 4,704 victims who lost about 14.78 billion baht.
The government is urgently pursuing this case to restore confidence in the Thai stock market.
Previously, the DSI had prosecuted 11 suspects under the 1992 Securities and Exchange Act for fraud against the public, as stipulated in the Penal Code, and for money laundering under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 1999 and its subsequent amendments.
