Dubai: An Emirati lawyer charged with embezzling £60 million (Dh359.55 million) from Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been released on bail, Gulf News has learnt.
"The 45-year-old lawyer deposited a Dh5 million financial bond and placed his passport and a guarantor's passport in custody before he walked out on bail. He will appear before the Dubai Misdemeanour Court on April 28," a prosecution source told Gulf News.
The lawyer had earlier denied the charge of embezzling £60 million that Shinawatra had entrusted him amid efforts to clinch a £150-million deal to sell English Premier League club Manchester City.
When he appeared before Presiding Judge Zakaria Abdul Aziz Othman, the lawyer, K.K., denied embezzling £60 million that Shinawatra had deposited in a bank account belonging to his firm on the basis of trust as the Manchester City deal was taking place.
Prosecutors also charged K.K. with embezzling another $25.45 million (Dh93.46 million) that Shinawatra transferred to the lawyer's bank account purely on the basis of trust.
Prosecutors also charged K.K. with embezzling $25.45 million that Shinawatra requested him to accept on his behalf from a company named BBD in Switzerland that sent a bank transfer
Political compulsion
Prosecution records said Shinawatra asked K.K. to open a bank account for him in the Republic of Montenegro so that he could collect the money. K.K. had apparently convinced Shinawatra to open an account in his [K.K.'s] name and transfer the money to avoid it being seized by European authorities due to the political tensions Shinawatra was facing in Thailand. Shinawatra agreed after being commissioned to run the account, but K.K. allegedly siphoned off the money deposited in his personal account.
K.K. was additionally charged with embezzling another Dh39.5 million from the £150 million meant for the football club deal after Shinawatra asked him to buy a villa on his behalf. Records said K.K. bought a villa worth Dh38 million in Emirates Hills and registered it in his name. K.K. paid Dh380,000 in brokerage fees and Dh620,000 in registration fees to the Lands and Properties Department. He also took Dh495,926 in fees for his own firm.
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