pita
BANGKOK (The Nation/Asia News Network): The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) gave Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat (pic) until July 23 to provide more details about his claim that he held 42,000 shares in ITV Plc as the estate executor of his late father.
Wattanachai Summee, assistant secretary-general of the commission, said the NACC wanted more details on the statement in Pita’s assets declaration regarding his holding of shares in ITV Plc as the executor of his late-father’s estate.
It was submitted to the NACC on June 21.
“Pita only submitted a copy of the court order that appointed him as executor [of his father’s estate],” Wattanachai said.
The NACC wants to see the list of the assets in the estate that Pita submitted to the court.
Pita said the South Bangkok Civil Court assigned him as executor of his late-father’s estate in 2007.
Wattanachai said Pita had previously asked for a 30-day extension of the deadline for submitting the documents and that this deadline will end on July 23.
Pita had also informed the NACC that he sold 14 rai of land of land in Prachuap Khiri Khan province’s Pranburi district that was part of his father’s estate, but he did not say how much he sold it for and the NACC wants more details on the sale, Wattanachai said.
Pita’s opponents have been trying to derail his bid to become Thailand’s next prime minister by filing complaints against him to the Election Commission (EC).
One complaint asked it to retroactively disqualify Pita from the May 14 election because he allegedly held shares in ITV, which the complaint described as a media company.
It is illegal for MPs to own shares in a media company.
ITV lost its broadcast license in 2007, and was delisted from the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2014.
Pita initially dismissed the allegations as “nonsense” and argued that he did not directly own shares in the company, saying he was only the executor of his father’s estate, which included the shares in the alleged media company.
The EC dismissed the complaint calling for it to retroactively disqualify Pita from the May 14 election, but it announced it would investigate whether he violated Article 151 of MPs Election Act, which makes it a crime for an individual to run for an MP’s seat when he or she knows they lack the qualifications to do so.
The EC has not yet updated the public about the progress of this investigation.
In late May, Pita transferred the shares to other heirs of his father, saying he suspected there was a conspiracy to revive ITV as a media company in order to prevent him from becoming prime minister.
In the assets declaration he sent to the NACC on June 21, Pita did not state that the ITV shares had been transferred to other heirs.
The NACC released the asset declaration it received from Pita to the public on Wednesday.
In it, Pita says he has 65 investments in the stock market.
These include 42,000 shares in ITV, worth 44,100 baht in total, and 830 shares in Sahaviriya Industry Plc, worth 41 baht, that he said he holds as the executor of his father’s estate.
