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Panthongtae Shinawatra

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Thai businessman (born 1979)
Panthongtae Shinawatra
พานทองแท้ ชินวัตร
Born (1979-12-02) 2 December 1979 (age 45)
Huntsville, Texas, U.S.
OccupationFounder of Voice TV
Political partyPheu Thai
SpousesNatthiya Puangkham
Parents
RelativesPaethongtarn Shinawatra (sister)
Yingluck Shinawatra (aunt)
Pitaka Suksawat (brother-in-law)

Panthongtae Shinawatra (Thai: พานทองแท้ ชินวัตร; RTGS: Phanthongthae Chinnawat; nicknamed Oak; born 2 December 1979) is a Thai businessman and the only son of former prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Early life and education

Panthongtae was admitted to the Faculty of Engineering at Thammasat University in 1998. However, he dropped out after one year. In 2000, he enrolled in Ramkhamhaeng University, an open admission government university, where he studied political science. In August 2002, his studies attracted media attention when he was accused of cheating in an exam. A three-week university investigation concluded that Panthongtae had made a mistake by carrying unrelated notes into the exam room and he was cleared of wrongdoing, yet he automatically failed the political science subject he was sitting. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2003.

Careers

An amateur photographer, Panthongtae founded in 2003 a production company called How Come Entertainment (now Voice TV Co. Ltd.), which was awarded an exclusive advertising contract for the MRT and many other government contracts when his father was prime minister. This caused controversy and drew charges of nepotism, as How Come was a new firm and the advertising concession for the subway had previously been awarded to the long established Triad Networks Company.

In early 2006, Panthongtae was involved in his family's sale of Shin Corporation stock to Temasek Holdings of Singapore. Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that Panthongtae, as director of Ample Rich Investments (a shell company set up in the British Virgin Islands to control Shin stock), had failed to properly notify the regulators of his holdings in Shin and sale of Shin shares, in transactions that occurred in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Prasong Vinaiphiat, deputy director of the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission, said: "The case is not severe because Panthongtae did inform the SEC but his report was not totally correct." He was fined 5.982 million baht (about US$150,000) for three violations of the Securities and Exchange Act.

In November 2009, Panthongtae's company Voice TV (formerly How Come Entertainment) launched its own digital TV station of the same name with 300 million baht.

References

  1. "TIME Asia Magazine: Hide the Report Card -- Sep. 09, 2002". January 13, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-01-13.
  2. "Thai PM's son cleared of cheating". BBC News. September 19, 2002. Retrieved April 3, 2006.
  3. "Thailand: Subway cake carved up". AsiaMedia. Archived from the original on March 13, 2007. Retrieved August 27, 2006.
  4. http://www.bangkokpost.net/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=81324 Bangkok Post Archived May 25, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Borneo Bulletin Online". Retrieved March 22, 2006.

External links

Thaksin Shinawatra
Premiership

Political activities
Controversies
Business career
Namesake institutions
Family
Yingluck Shinawatra
Premiership

Politics
Events
Family
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