MALFEASANCE CHARGE
AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK
Apinan: Accused of
misleading the board |
Two shareholders of Thai Airways International (THAI) have filed a malfeasance lawsuit against 12 executives of the national airline, accusing them of causing billions of baht of damages to the carrier.
On Monday, the Criminal Court accepted for examination a lawsuit filed jointly by Wisuth Sahachartmanop and Jindasri Sudsawat who made the accusation against THAI chairman Chaisawat Kittipornpaibul, THAI president Apinan Sumanaseni and 10 other airline executives.
They are accused of misrepresenting information to convince the THAI board to approve an advance of more than four billion baht for eight Airbus A330-300 aircraft.
The advance was made to look as if THAI planned to buy the eight planes. In fact, the previous government resolved that THAI would lease the aircraft and not buy them.
The cabinet resolution is still in effect, the plaintiffs said.
The advance was approved even though the National Economic and Social Development Board viewed the national airline as unhealthy financially, according to the complainants.
They also accused the executives of convincing the THAI board to endorse the installation of Rolls Royce engines in the aircraft, which led to unnecessary expense.
The defendants convinced the board that Rolls Royce engines were the best choice, but actually the choice cost nearly 200 million baht more than other engine makes, they claim.
The complainants also claim that there was an attempt to also convince the board to approve Rolls Royce engines for Airbus A380-800 aircraft that THAI ordered.
That cost the airline an added expense of more than 10 million baht compared with the engines of other manufacturers, according to the lawsuit filed by the pair.
THAI president Apinan said yesterday he would file a defamation lawsuit against the two shareholders.
Yesterday the THAI board acknowledged that the airline posted a loss of 6,998 million baht for its operations between January and June this year.
Of the figure, 5,696 million baht resulted from foreign exchange losses.
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Next
