Former deputy commerce minister Banyin Tangpakorn has asked to postpone a meeting with Crime Suppression Division police until Wednesday when he will give a statement about the huge share transfer the billionaire contractor Chuwong Sae Tang made just days before his death.
Pol Lt Col Banyin was summonsed to testify before police investigators on Monday, but he sought a postponement of the meeting until Wednesday by citing a busy schedule, Pol Col Jeerapop Puridetch, the chief CSD sub-division 1, said on Sunday.
Pol Lt Col Banyin was giving Chuwong, 50, the owner of Standard Performance Co, a ride home when their Lexus sport utility vehicle hit a tree on Chaloem Phrakiat Road in Prawet district of Bangkok on June 26. Chuwong was killed and Pol Lt Col Banyin sustained minor injuries.
Chuwong's family raised doubts about his death in light of the fact that Banyin sustained minor injuries and that shares worth hundreds of millions of baht were suspiciously transferred to two women just days before the crash. They have also suggested that the signatures on the transfer documents had been forged.
Investigators want to question Pol Lt Col Banyin about the relationship between the two women – Kanthana Siwathanapol and Uracha Wacharakulton - and Chuwong as well as relations between the women and himself.
Ms Kanthana, 26, a former golf caddie who is seven months’ preganant, reported to the CSD last Thursday. She admitted to receiving 228 million baht in shares from Chuwong shortly before his death in late June.
Her lawyer said Chuwong had given them to her out of affection
The next day, Ms Uracha, 26, a broker with AEC Securities Plc, admitted she had had an affair with the 50-year-old tycoon and that her mother, Srithara Promma, had received nearly 40 million baht worth of shares from him.
During the interrogation, the investigators found there were some suspicions regarding the share transfer to Ms Uracha, said Pol Col Jeerapop.
The investigators were considering whether to summons her to testify again. They would invite other witnesses who were staffers of the brokerage firm that handled the share transfers.
The CSD’s investigation into the case was 60% complete, said Pol Col Jeerapop.
