ByYessar Rosendar,
Forbes Staff.
Thailand’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered jailed billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra to pay 17.6 billion baht ($542 million) in taxes and fines in relation to the sale of his company Shin Corp. almost two decades ago to Singapore’s state-linked investment firm Temasek, according to local media reports.
The Supreme Court overturned earlier rulings by the Central Tax Court and the Special Appeals Court, which had canceled the Revenue Department’s tax assessment. It is the latest blow to the former Prime Minister, whom the Supreme Court had ordered in September to serve one year in jail to complete a prison sentence handed down in 2023 over corruption and abuse of power charges.
Thaksin sold 49% of Shin Corp. to Temasek for 73.3 billion baht in 2006, just days after the government raised the foreign ownership limit on telecommunications companies to 49% from 25%. The deal, which was executed without a tax payment, triggered street protests that led to Thaksin’s ouster as prime minister by a military coup while he was attending a United Nations meeting in New York.
