KTB OFFENDERS: Paying for the sin of the 'big boss'

The ruling was an epic decision, for many reasons. 

First, it proved that the court had real teeth and is prepared to exercise its authority to the fullest extent. Second, the mass convictions struck a historic blow against white-collar crime in Thailand. Third, all of the offenders dutifully turned up to face the verdict in court, except one, still debatably the ringleader – aka the “big boss”. Fourth, the combined age of the offenders stood at over 1,000 years, the case having taken a full 12 years to be completed.

During those years, the lives of the 19 defendants were turned upside down. Lawyers’ fees mounted to exorbitant levels. The worries, stress and anxiety grew exponentially as time went by. Some in the dock wished that the “coup de grace” would come quickly so as to end their misery. During the whole time, their families agonised with them. Hundreds of innocent bystanders got swept under by the riptide. 

Two weeks after the monumental verdict, one of those found guilty passed away from liver cancer. Some observers reckoned it was a blessed escape from years of confinement. But however one looks at it, in humanitarian terms the event was a tragedy. How many more now face the same fate as their only means of escape from prison? After all, jail terms of between 12 and 18 years mean many offenders will be pushing 100 before they get the chance to walk this Earth as free men again.

Prison is, notoriously, no place for the fainthearted. Hardcore criminals might find it a refuge: for them life inside can be safer than out. But how these bankers will cope is beyond imagination.

Meanwhile the furtive Big Boss, whose instruction reportedly propelled the crime, is nowhere to be found. Nobody is even certain of his/her identity. Obviously, he/she can’t be a “little person”, like the rest of us: A loan of Bt9 billion is not chump change.

For perspective, it is worth noting that successive Thai governments have used Krung Thai and other state-owned banks as off-budget stimulus mechanisms for the country’s economy. The Thai financial crisis of 1997 saw a significant dwindling of the country’s reserves thanks to the government “rescue” strategy of turning huge private debts into public ones. It would be natural to assume that KTB played a big role in that strategy. 

This is not to say that the borrower in this recent questionable transaction was thoroughly creditworthy. But in this instance, Thailand is no exception. Mega-loans in emerging as well as developed countries are often borderline risky, especially in the housing and real estate sector. The 1989-91 Savings and Loan crisis in the US was caused in part by imprudent real estate lending as well as fraud. The same goes for the 2007 financial crisis. Today, another major financial earthquake is looming. Since 2007, the assets of Chinese banks have grown 400 per cent and now stand at US$31 trillion, against the country’s $10 trillion in gross domestic product. Much of the banks’ lending went to build new cities and housing projects across China – which have since stood empty. The housing loans were intended by the government to boost the country’s growth, but the strategy went awry.

In Thailand, a host of KTB top executives have faced legal problems for implementing the government’s policy. In some cases, it’s not that they were dishonest and took kickbacks from borrowers, but because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some years ago, one rising star of our financial sector took the helm of KTB and promptly came face to face with a storm of legal woes. The stress mounted and he quickly learned he could trust no one. Alcohol became his only friend and he eventually suffered a stroke. 

In the end, a potentially enormous source of Thai human capital wasted his most productive years at a prestigious US university, and reduced himself to a troubled soul. 

Many will have been gratified by the Supreme Court’s verdict, after years of seeing the rich and powerful get away with murder – sometimes literally. Corruption and a culture of impunity have become our national cancer, but the verdict offered signs of a cure.

But as His Majesty once said of the extrajudicial killings during the “war on drugs” undertaken by the government in 2003, one single innocent life unjustly taken is one too many.

So, we have to ask ourselves, what of the KTB officials who took no active or conscious part in this transaction, who received no financial benefit from this questionable loan, but were simply asked to do their job, perhaps more quickly than usual? What about them, sitting in jail and left to rot in a hell on earth? What about their lives, and the families and loved ones who suffer with them? 

We have to ask ourselves – how many of those KTB officials were merely doing their job when they were caught in a net cast wide in a bid to catch the real thief, who nevertheless escaped?

Only when we put ourselves in their shoes will we have the answer.