October 31, 2009
BANGKOK (AFP) - A fugitive banker arrived in Thailand after his extradition from Canada and was remanded in custody Saturday on charges of embezzling millions of dollars, a police spokesman said.
Indian national Rakesh Saxena landed at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport late Friday and was whisked away under heavy security to a police station where he underwent six hours of intense interrogation, the spokesman said.
Saxena is accused of embezzling 1.7 billion baht (52 million dollars) from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, which collapsed in 1995. He fled to Vancouver and was arrested in July 1996 at the request of Thai police.
He lost his 13-year fight against extradition when Canada's Supreme Court refused to hear his case on Thursday and within hours was transferred to Thai authorities and put on a plane to Bangkok.
"Early this morning he was taken for interrogation at the Crime Suppression Division after a team of police doctors examined him and agreed that he was fit both physically and mentally," Major General Pongsapat Pongcharoen told AFP.
Pongsapat said Saxena had denied all the allegations against him.
"He fully cooperated with police but he denied all allegations, so this morning police brought him to Bangkok Southern Criminal Court to seek court approval for his first remand," he said.
Saxena appeared in court in a wheelchair and said that he needed medical treatment. The court remanded him in custody for 12 days on condition that he was kept in the jail hospital, officials said.
Saxena worked as an adviser to the former managing director of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce from February to July 1995 and was accused over irregularities in loan approvals totalling 175 billion baht.
The subsequent collapse of the bank was seen as an early indication of the regulatory failures that would lead to the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva vowed Friday that the government would not meddle with the trial, which is sensitive because some members of his shaky coalition government have been accused of having ties to the case.
