A relative of Dolrudee Jumlongras, the former Mahidol University dentistry lecturer who breached her state scholarship contract, has admitted the family has been affected by the case.
He is urging the public not to blame relatives for the doctor's behaviour just because they share the same last name.
"Those words I find most painful are claims that people using this same surname colluded [with Dr Dolrudee] to cheat and managed to leave me shouldering the smallest burden of the debts," said Prasit Jumlongras, who insisted he is only a "distant relative" of the dentist.
He was speaking to the Bangkok Post, admitting he is also among the guarantors for Dr Dolrudee's scholarship that has been affected by the case.
- See also: Dolrudee blames Mahidol for debt
Mr Prasit made reference to the 232,975 baht debt the Administrative Court ordered him to pay Mahidol University after Dr Dolrudee failed to complete a two-year work assignment at the university required under contract after receiving the scholarship.
Mr Prasit said Dr Dolrudee's father asked him to become a guarantor for his daughter's scholarship as he was a state official, this despite the fact Mr Prasit had not met Ms Dolrudee in person.
However, he said Dr Dolrudee's father returned him the amount of money he was ordered to pay the university after he wrote the father a letter informing him of the situation.
Text of an email reportedly send on Wednesday by Dr Dolrudee to her beleagured co-signers.
The ordeal led to further public criticism when it was revealed Dr Dolrudee's father only paid around 200,000 baht while other guarantors had to pay up to 2.5 million baht each.
The contract he signed as guarantor was one of three that Dr Dolrudee failed to honour after she went to study at Harvard University.
The other two contracts were for Master's and Phd scholarships, both guaranteed by four dentists that were ordered by the court to repay Dr Dolrudee's debt totalling 10 million baht, said Mr Prasit.
"I have a lot of sympathy for those guarantors ... when I met them recently at the court, I advised them to seek a waiver on interest payments, which they did and the court allowed them to pay only 10 million baht instead of the 30 million baht," he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Dolrudee, now a researcher at Harvard University, said in an e-mail received late on Wednesday that she always intended to hold up her end of the scholarship contract by either working for Mahidol University or paying the debt.
However, she said, she had requested more time to pay the 30 million baht she owed -- three times the value of the scholarship -- rather than paying it off in one lump sum within 30 days.
Dr Dolrudee said Mahidol refused her request.
She wrote she had been unable to work for years as Mahidol University blocked her passport renewal, causing her financial hardship. She is now married and a naturalised US citizen and doesn't need the Thai passport for work.
She denied she tried to escape and dodge her repayment obligations. She claimed she obtained a personal loan of US$50,000 (1,782,650 baht) and sent it to her guarantors last April.
"I asked Mahidol to extend the deadline so there would be enough time for me to find more money to repay the debt," Dr Dolrudee wrote.
"Without leniency from Mahidol, my co-signers had to secure a personal loan to repay, and I have promised them their loans will be paid off with interest after I can obtain the necessary loans in the near future," Dr Dolrudee said.
She hoped that her case "would result in a major change in the scholarship awarding and repayment system in Thailand, a system that would allow reasonable and beneficial alternatives for the awardees to repay their loans".
Padet Poolwithayakit, one of Dr Dolrudee's four guarantors, confirmed she had transferred US$50,000 to the guarantors.
However, he does not trust Dr Dolrudee as she has repeatedly promised to return the money but had not done so.
He insisted he did not intend to take any legal action against Mahidol University but only wanted to see reasonable changes to the university's regulations about responsibilities imposed on scholarship contract guarantors.
Prof Udom Kachintorn, president of the university, meanwhile, denied a new claim by Dr Dolrudee that she tried to negotiate her debt repayment period.
The university had tried to contact Dr Dolrudee for over a decade requesting she return to pay off the debt but had not received any response from her, and nor had she contacted them to renegotiate terms.