BANGKOK, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Panthongtae Shinawatra, the son of Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was on Monday acquitted by court of money-laundering charges.
The Criminal Court lifted the money-laundering lawsuit against Panthongtae who had been earlier accused of accepting a 10 million baht check (about 331,125 U.S. dollars) from another person allegedly involved in the money-laundering case.
The court ruled that Thaksin's son was innocent due to lack of evidence to judge him otherwise while the 10-million-baht check was handed out to him in open and unhidden fashion from Ratchada Krisadathanon, one of the six defendants of the money-laundering case.
Panthongtae earlier testified before the court that the money given to him was by no means related to the money-laundering which has allegedly involved Ratchada.
Panthongtae admitted that the 10 million baht was not related either to the money-laundering scam or an estimated eight billion baht (about 264.9 million U.S. dollars) in loans which the state-owned Krung Thai Bank had provided for real estate developer Krisada Mahanakorn Group between 2003 and 2004. The group was formerly headed by Ratchada's father.
Thaksin's son maintained that he and Ratchada had earlier planned to co-invest in an imported luxury automobile business, prompting his friend to give him the money.
