The state-run Krung Thai Bank (KTB) loan scandal -- which was almost resolved four years ago after 26 people except fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra were given heavy jail terms from 12 to 18 years -- is now being resurrected by the opposition Thaksin-linked Pheu Thai Party.
Pheu Thai has threatened to censure Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) leader Uttama Savanayana, a former executive board member of the bank.
Whether Pheu Thai will actually carry out the threat remains to be seen. But one thing that the party must take into consideration is that the case will not hurt the prime minister and Mr Uttama as much as it will hurt Thaksin and his only son, Panthongtae.
Thaksin is now facing an arrest warrant for a retrial over the loan scandal under the amended Criminal Code, which makes it possible for a trial to be held in absentia of the defendant. And Mr Panthongtae is now being tried for his alleged role in the loan scandal over a 10-million baht cheque deposited into his bank account from Wichai Krisdathanon, an executive of the Krisdamahanakorn Group, the recipient of the 9.9 billion baht controversial loan extended by the KTB.
Pheu Thai accuses Mr Uttama of being a member of the KTB executive board, which approved the loan back in 2003 during the government of then prime minister Thaksin. But Mr Uttama claimed he rejected the loan for Golden Technology Industrial Park, an affiliate of the Krisdamahanakorn Group. However, the party has demanded he shows evidence to prove his disapproval of the loan.
I am not sure whether Pheu Thai has read an extract of a book, titled Nai Noeng Paendin (In One Kingdom) written by former governor of the Bank of Thailand, MR Pridiyathorn Devakula who told his side of the story about the loan scandal, and how a newspaper owner -- whom he said was closely connected to a top executive of the KTB -- then tried to undermine his position in the central bank, after he refused to extend the tenure of the top executive in the KTB.
In his petition to the Anti-Money Laundering Office, MR Pridiyathorn said Mr Uttama, then an independent executive board member of KTB representing the Finance Ministry, and another member, Chainarong Intharameesap, who were let off the hook came forward to offer information about the loan scandal to him and also to the inspector of commercial banks.
In its routine check of the books of the KTB every two years, the central bank found something suspicious about the loan to Krisdamahanakorn Group and to automaker Thonburi Assembly.
Regarding the 9.9 billion baht loan granted to Golden Technology Industrial Park, an affiliate of Krisdamahanakorn Group, 8 billion baht was intended to be paid to Bangkok Bank as debt settlement to free the company's land plots used as collateral. However, the central bank found out that only 4.44 billion baht was paid to Bangkok Bank and the rest -- 3.55 billion baht -- was spent on other purposes, such as investments in sharers and buying additional land, and unknown amounts going into the personal bank accounts of some individuals.
The central bank also found out that a footnote in the loan document made by the KTB's loan screening committee, saying that the loan should be paid only to the Bangkok Bank, was deleted by somebody -- paving the way for the borrower to spend the loan at its free will.
Mr Uttama, who is touted as a possible cabinet minister under Prime Minister Prayut, has insisted he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the central bank, the National Anti-Corruption Committee, the now-defunct Assets Scrutiny Committee (a body set up in 2006 by the military that probed the Thaksin government to investigate alleged excesses by Thaksin and his associates), and the Office of the Attorney-General.
If the Pheu Thai Party goes ahead with the threatened censure motion against the prime minister for appointing Mr Uttama as a minister, it is likely the PPRP will respond in kind by digging up more dirt about the loan scandal and Thaksin, who lives comfortably abroad, will inevitably be dragged into this war of words.
It will be fun for the audience sitting on the sidelines watching the political games being played out in parliament.
Pheu Thai should think twice as to whether it is worth stirring up a messy affair from the past that most of us have long forgotten.
Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, Bangkok Post.
