SHARE MANIPULATION CASE
MONRUTHAI NORAKONG
The Criminal Court has asked prosecutors to force TPI Polene Plc (TPIPL) to pay an overdue fine of 6.9 billion baht after it manipulated shares ahead of its public offering in 2004.
The request was written by chief judge Witoon Klongmeekun who sent it to Seksan Bangsomboon, the prosecution's chief for special litigation. The judge said the company, owned by industrial tycoon Prachai Leophairatana, should have paid the fine within 30 days of the court verdict on the case, on Dec 3, 2007.
On March 10 this year, the Criminal Court asked prosecutors, who brought the case to the court, to appoint enforcement officials to demand money from the company, Mr Prachai, the company's consultant at that time, Stern Stewart (Thailand), and Stern Stewart executive Chienchuang Kalayanamitr.
However, prosecutors have still not responded to the request.
By law, prosecutors are required to ask the court to approve the appointment.
Failure to pay the fine would authorise the court to order that the defendants' assets be seized.
Appeals filed by Prachai and Chienchuang should not be used as an excuse to postpone the fine, according to the law.
The court fined TPIPL 6.9 billion baht and Stern Stewart the same amount. The court also sentenced Prachai and Chienchuang to three years in jail for complicity in the case and also fined them 300,000 baht each.
According to the verdict, TPIPL hired Stern Stewart to conduct a corporate valuation for the company.
Stern Stewart reported that after the deduction of its liabilities, TPIPL's estimated value of 91.3 billion baht was reduced to about 44 billion baht, representing a proper share price of 89 baht per share, prior to its offering of 300 million shares for sale.
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