Thaksin disguises himself to look like a normal tourist to sneak back into Thailand.Standing next to an imitation foam tank, he waited for the TV cameras to arrive, then suddenly disrobed, revealing tights and a funny cape, and unleashing fistfuls of hot cash among innocent bystanders. (Perfectly normal behaviour for Thaksin).
First pictures!! Thaksin Shinawatra disguised himself as a western tourist and succeeded in getting through Bangkok's Customs and Immigration (although we do suspect a little gift changed hands behind the bomb-scanning machine.......)
You may have twigged that this is (mostly) bullsh*t. Seriously now, Thaksin may well be returning to Thailand at some stage. What a stage entry that will be. Legal processes are gearing up to seize his assets and hopefully extradite him from England, once the new government establishes that he broke Thai law. That ain't gunna be hard to prove... and not only that he avoided tax on the ShinCorp sale to Singapore - there's more:
The Financial Times (of London, where our man is holed up) reported:
"During Mr Thaksin's tenure in office, ShinCorp has benefitted from various favourable government decisions. These include: the reduction of the crushing licence fee burden of iTV, the group's TV channel; Board of Investment tax breaks for Shin Sattelite's IPStar project; and delays in creating a National Telecom Commission which was supposed to create a level playing field in the skewed mobile industry. ShinCorp has also diversified into new ventures, including aviation with Thai AirAsia... The venture was swiftly granted a range of government breaks, including a 50% discount on docking fees by the Airports Authority, and income tax breaks......" ...and so on...
Singapore's privately-owned Temasek Corp, which trustingly (=naively) bought ShinCorp from Thaksin, is suddenly panicking and considering reducing its ownership from 96% down to 49% to meekly comply with Thai law (pity that Temasek's lawyers couldn't have investigated the legal side of things properly before the deal was signed...... or did Thaksin quietly pay them out months ago while on one of his government-funded "family shopping trips" to Orchard Rd?).
Now suddenly the Singapore government is stepping in to the negotiations (!?). Me wonder why... It might have something to do with the fact that the shares were bought at 49 baht each, and now they're trading at only 25. That could amount to much more than a mere blip on Singapore's STI Stock Exchange. With that magnitude of loss at stake, Thaksin had better guard his ill-gotten profits from lawsuits... if the Thai government's newly-restored Anti-Corruption Commission doesn't get the first bite, that is.
Read more details in Thailand's 'The Nation' newspaper here.
Pssst! ...would YOU like to get YOUR share of Thaksin's dosh too? If so, simply send $20 (CASH) to the management of FunkyPix2 and we'll include your name in a class action. No need to explain your grounds - we'll make it all up for you. That's what lawyers are for.
STOP PRESS: Just as FP2 predicted, Thaksin has just made a phone call to the new PM, indicating that he'd like to return. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation...
Cool, count me in. Here's my twenty Kenyan dollars. The name's Amin, c/- Saudi Embassy, Bolivia.
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