Chanin Yensudchai, one of the key suspects in the Stark Corporation embezzlement scandal, arrived in Bangkok on Sunday after he was deported from Dubai.
United Arab Emirates authorities handed over Mr Chanin to their Thai counterparts in Dubai on Saturday to bring him back to Thailand.
Officials whisked him away from Suvarnabhumi Airport to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) where he will be detained and interrogated by Pol Lt Col Chakkrit Wisetkhetkan, director of the DSI’s Bureau of Financial-Banking Crimes and Money Laundering.
The DSI will take him to the Office of the Attorney-General on Monday to ask prosecutors to indict him, Thai PBS reported on Sunday. He was away from Thailand for almost a year.
The DSI accepted the financial misconduct case for investigation in June last year and later recommended legal action against seven Stark employees and five related companies for forgery, fraud, embezzlement and money laundering under the Securities and Exchange Act.
The seven were identified as Stark’s largest shareholder Vonnarat Tangkaravakoon, former board member Chinawat Assavapokee, former chief financial officer Sathar Chantrasettalead, former chief marketing officer Kittisak Jitprasertngam, Mr Sathar’s former secretary Yosabavorn Amarit, Mr Chanin, and secretary Nattaya Prabpetch.
The five companies were Stark and its subsidiaries: Phelps Dodge International (Thailand), Thai Cable International, Adisorn Songkhla Co and Asia Pacific Drilling Engineering.
The accounting and embezzlement scandal at SET-listed Stark was one of the country’s largest corporate frauds in recent years.
A major player in the wire and cable manufacturing industry, Stark faced allegations of falsifying financial statements, inflating revenues and misappropriating company funds.
The scandal came to light in early 2023 after external auditors noticed discrepancies between reported figures and actual financial performance. Subsequent investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed these findings, revealing that the financial statements had been manipulated for several years.
Investigators found that Stark executives orchestrated a scheme to present a misleadingly positive financial outlook to investors and stakeholders. This involved creating fake sales records, overvaluing assets and hiding liabilities to artificially boost the company’s stock price and secure loans and investments.
The misdeeds attributed to the accused executives ultimately affected 4,704 shareholders, causing financial damage estimated at 14.7 billion baht, according to regulators.