PUBLISHED: 26 Sep 2024 at 06: 02
After being charged with bribery allegations in a deal to supply Rolls-Royce engines to Thai Airways International ( THAI ) more than 30 years ago, Thanong Bidaya was released on bail by the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct cases on Wednesday.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission ( NACC ) filed the lawsuit after finding evidence to back up the claim that Mr. Thanong had violated the State Employees Offences Act while serving as THAI’s chairman and the airline’s advisor on long-term investments. Even arraigned was Kaweepan Ruengpaka, THAI’s former vice president for money. After the Office of the Attorney General made the decision not to take the case to court, the NACC made the decision to return the situation to the NACC.
The judge said in a media release on Wednesday that it had accepted the lawsuit brought against the accused and had scheduled a hearing on October 7 for the plaintiffs to enter their pleas. Both accused were released on bail, but they are not permitted to travel abroad without a court order.
After Rolls-Royce admitted to misconduct to the British Serious Fraud Office ( SFO ) in January 2017, the NACC launched the investigation into the bribery allegations. Rolls-Royce admitted to paying about 254 million dollars to individuals in comments to the SFO to support it secure a deal with the Thai government to obtain Rolls-Royce Trent 800 vehicles for six Boeing 777 plane and Trent 500 vehicles for seven Airbus A340 plane.
A statement of facts prepared in a British court said the bribery took place between 1991 and 2005 and involved payments totalling about US$ 36.3 million ( 1.28 billion baht ) to “regional intermediaries”. According to the report, some of the money went to” Indian agents of the state of Thailand” and Thai Airways people. The NACC discovered that Mr. Thanong and Mr. Kaweepan had violated the State Employees Offences Act after looking into various past THAI cabinet ministers and executives.