As he contemplates exile in his luxury apartment in the posh London suburb of Kensington, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra now has 30 days to tally his assets to meet the demands of corruption investigators empowered by the military junta that deposed him.
Thailand's fourth-richest man, a self-made tycoon, will generate plenty of interest when he compiles that list. It is expected to provide an intriguing update on the US$403 million in assets he declared on taking office in 2001 - including 10 cars, fine jewellery, 35 buildings and plots of land in Bangkok, Phuket and his northern home town of Chiang Mai, as well as an assortment of local and international shares and investment funds.
This time, however, the spotlight will fall on the US$1.9 billion his immediate family received for the sale earlier this year of their 49.6 per cent stake in the Shin Corp telecoms empire built by Mr Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, from a tiny computer firm in the 1980s.
Even if some of that wealth surfaces on Mr Thaksin's personal assets list, other assets will be conspicuous by their absence - the fat government concessions, some forged during Mr Thaksin's five-year rule, that helped his wealth grow. Now in the hands of Temasek Holdings after the Thaksin family's sale of Shin Corp, those concessions have not been forgotten, government and political sources warn.
The sale to Temasek - Singapore's state-owned investment vehicle - marked the biggest deal in Thai corporate history, passing into foreign hands subsidiaries that included AIS, Thailand's largest mobile phone service operator, and Shin Satellite.
The Temasek deal sparked huge demonstrations in Bangkok earlier this year as pressure mounted on Mr Thaksin's populist rule. The sale was completed in January, three days after a law took effect allowing foreign firms to own 49 per cent of telecoms companies. Regular protests rumbled through February and March, with politicians and the public expressing concern at the tax-free nature of the deal, the sale of such strategic assets to foreigners and Thaksin's 'dictatorial' rule. By late March, more than 100,000 appeared in street demonstrations, some staging vigils outside Government House demanding Mr Thaksin resign.
