PUBLISHED: 21 Feb 2025 at 04: 00
Suthee Chuamthaisong, one of the 16 persons who was found guilty of fraud in connection with the Yingluck Shinawatra administration’s graft-ridden rice-pledging program, has been detained in Khon Kaen after evading officials for several years.
According to the National Anti-Corruption Commission ( NACC ) secretary-general, Sarote Phuengramphan, Suthee Chuamthaisong was arrested yesterday at a house in Nong Song Hong district, where he lived with his common-law wife.
Since 2015, officials have been looking for his movements, but Mr. Suthee has evaded them in an effort to avoid being prosecuted. In 2019, the Supreme Court found him guilty of fraud and in absentia put him in jail for his part in the scheme, which resulted in loss of over 500 billion ringgit.
Suthee: Hidingin Khon Kaen
According to Mr. Sarote, Suthee was found guilty of four works of corruption in connection with the government-to-government corn offers, in accordance with the 1999 Law on Crimes Relating to Bidding Submission to Government Agencies and the 1999 Organic Act on Counter Corruption.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison for each count, or 32 times in full, and was ordered to co-pay 1.6 billion ringgit in compensation plus interest, along with the other defendants.
Suthee was the right-hand gentleman of Apichat” Sia Piang” Chansakunphon, a well-known corn trader, who was sentenced to 48 years in prison for his role in the rice-pledging incident. After serving his prison sentence of seven decades, he was released on October 9, 2013.