TV presenter Sorayuth Suthassanachinda and four others on Monday pleaded innocent to charges they embezzled 138 million baht from state-run Mcot Plc.
In January, public prosecutors charged former Mcot staffer Pichapa Iamsa-ard; Mr Sorayuth; former directors in his Rai Som Co Angkhana Watthanamongkholsilp and Sukanya sae Lim; and Rai Som employee Montha Theeradet. On Monday, they were summoned to enter their pleas and review evidence against them.
Mrs Pichapa was accused of receiving bribes from Rai Som to conceal 17 instances in which advertising during Mr Sorayuth's Khui Khui Khao news programme exceeded its allocated time slots between Feb 4, 2005 and April 28, 2006. The overages would have cost the company 138 million baht.
The former Mcot staffer was accused of receiving 658,996 baht from the four other defendants. All five denied the charges.
Public prosecutors have readied 19 witnesses, including former and current Mcot employees and executives.
Mrs Pichapa told the court she had not used correction fluid to erase any records on the commercials and she had received six cheques from the company for her services to arrange queues of ads. She has two witnesses: herself and an Mcot employee who was her supervisor.
Miss Angkhana and Miss Sukanya denied they had assigned anyone to arrange for additional advertising or had bribed Mrs Pichapa erase any evidence of them.
Mr Sorayuth told the court he had neither known Mrs Pichapa nor had anyone conceal excessive advertising minutes. He said he had issued the six cheques to pay for "coordination services".
The three directors of the company have 25 witnesses. Miss Montha, the other defendant, echoed Mr Sorayuth about the six cheques and has eight witnesses.
The court set prosecutors' witness examination on Sept 17-18 and 29-30, with defence witnesses testifying Oct 2, 8, 28 and 30.
Mr Sorayuth told reporters he would appear at all court dates.