On 23 January 2006, the Shinawatra and Damapong families sold their entire stake in Thailand’s telecom conglomerate Shin Corporation to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings for approximately 73 billion baht. The transaction became a national scandal because it occurred while Thaksin Shinawatra was prime minister and used a stock-exchange regulation that exempted individual sellers from capital-gains tax. Critics alleged insider trading, nominee ownership, and an improper transfer of strategic telecommunications assets to a foreign state-linked investor.
Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the sale and reported finding no insider trading or other irregularities involving Potjaman Na Pombejra and most family members. It did, however, fine her son Panthongtae 6 million baht for disclosure and public-tender infractions relating to earlier transactions. After the 2006 military coup, the junta’s Assets Examination Committee also investigated the family’s 2003 purchase of four government-owned land plots for 772 million baht. In a 21 October 2008 ruling, Thailand’s Supreme Court convicted Thaksin of abusing his power to assist the purchase and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment, while the court’s reported findings did not impose liability on Potjaman in that case. The sale remains a landmark example of how political power, family ownership, and telecom infrastructure collided in Thailand.
