Anchalee Kongrut and Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
Bangkok Post
June 12, 2003

Arrest warrants could be issued by the end of June for companies and state officials involved in the sale and acquisition of 1,903 rai land for the Klong Dan wastewater treatment project.

Land sold to the Pollution Control Department for the controversial wastewater treatment at Klong Dan could be reclaimed by the state if the court rules that title deeds were illegally issued for public property, chief of the Special Investigation Department said yesterday.

“The Land Department will be required to set up a committee to get back some of the land,” Pol Lt-Gen Noppadol Somboonsap, director-general of SID said. “If the Pollution Control Department wants use of the land some time in the future, the state can issue royal decrees to hand the land back.”

He expected arrest warrants would be issued by the end of this month for companies and state officials involved in the sale and acquisition of 1,903 rai land for the project, some of it public land, at a highly inflated price.

An SID investigation concluded part of land included in the sale, including canals, mangrove forest and coastal land, belonged to the state. The land had in 1929 been declared state property reserved for a garbage dumpsite, but it was distributed to villagers under Sor Kor-1 and Nor Sor-3 programmes, Pol Lt-Gen Noppadol said.

In 1989 and 1990, Palm Beach Development Co and Lan Thong Mining Co. bought small plots from villagers for developing into a golf course.

Palm Beach Development had asked the Land Department to issue title deeds, but public property including 100 rai of public canals and over 700 rai of seasonally flooded coastline were included in the title deeds.

Lanthong Mining and Palm Beach Development had connections with politicians and their relatives. Veteran politician Vatana Asavahame and his brother Somporn, were shareholders in Lanthong Mining while Boonsri Pinkayans, wife of former finance minister Subin Pinkhayans, were major shareholders in Palm Beach Development Co. along with Mr Somporn.

The SID’s report, leaked to the press, said there was strong evidence that Mr Vatana, a former deputy interior minister and MP for the province, might have pressured the Land Department to issue title deeds.

Mr Vatana has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the accusations were politically motivated.

Despite denying his involvement in Palm Beach, Mr Vatana was indirectly connected with Palm Beach Development though proxy shares. Northern Resource Co, another company Mr Vatana invested in, is a major shareholder in Palm Beach Development.

The land plots were transferred many times and the price increased to over 100,000 baht per rai. Finally Palm Beach Development sold it to Klong Dan Marine and Fishery, which sold it to the Pollution Control Department, for the wastewater treatment project, at 1.03 million baht a rai.

Pol Maj-Gen Suthep Thammarak, assistant to the director-general of the National Police Bureau, said the price of the land was unusually high. The land was “low-lying ground and seasonally flooded by sea water”.

“It should have cost far more less than one million baht. The price increased because it was resold for many times,” he said. Meanwhile, the senate panel on environment has completed its probe in the Klong Dan project and sent its report to the SID.

Deputy chairman Charoon Yangprapakorn said although there was proof of public servants being involved in the land purchase and title deeds approval, the committee still lacked important documents and witnesses which would confirm politicians’ wrongdoing.