Ex-commerce minister sentenced to 42 years in jail

BANGKOK, Aug 26 (TNA) -- Former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom is sentenced to 42 years in jail for falsifying government-to-government (G-to-G) rice deals between Thailand and China under the rice-pledging scheme. The verdict was handed down hours after former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra failed to show up at the Supreme Court for the verdict in a negligence case brought against over the same rice scheme. Mr Boonsong is found guilty of orchestrating scams that resulted in huge losses to the state that involved a total of 28 persons including his deputy, Poom Sarapol who was sentenced 36 years in jail. Public prosecutors had presented to court evidence that the rice bought from farmers at above market price was sold locally to the companies that have close ties with government figures and was not exported as claimed by Yingluck’s government. Yingluck government had claimed G-to-G deals were made with a local Chinese state enterprise, but investigators found that the rice had never been exported and the enterprise was not certified by the central Chinese government. Instead, representative of the cited firm was found to work for a Thai company with close connections to certain figures in Yingluck’s government. (TNA)