Thai renewable firm founder seeks US$1.5b in fraud case

THE founder of Thailand’s biggest wind power operator is seeking about US$1.5 billion at a London fraud trial over allegations he was pressured to sell a large chunk of the firm just as he faced criminal charges in the country.

The claims were aired on the first day of the case where lawyers for ex-chief executive officer of Wind Energy Holding, Nopporn Suppipat, said he was “fraudulently induced” into selling about 60 per cent of his shares in the firm and was never paid their true value. 

Nop Narongdej and Siam Commercial Bank deliberately undervalued the shares and manipulated key documents between 2014 to 2018, according court filings by Suppipat’s lawyers. Narongdei and other defendants have denied allegations of wrongdoing, according to court documents. Lawyers for Narongdej and the bank didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The 17-week long trial will be keenly watched in the south-east Asian nation, with Wind Energy Holding delaying an initial public offering to at least 2024 until the case is resolved. 

The shares were worth US$872 million at the time of sale and are now worth US$1.6 billion, Suppipat’s lawyers said in the documents. He “received only US$176 million in return.”

The allegation that the bank conspired to defraud Suppipat is “inherently improbable” and is not supported by the evidence. The founder of the firm has tried “to throw all the defendants together in the hope that some mud will stick to SCB,” the Thai lender said through its lawyer in filing to the court.

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Suppipat, who now lives as a political exile in France, was accused of several criminal offences in Thailand including insulting the King and Queen. Charges he says are politically motivated that forced him to flee Thailand overnight in 2014. Suppipat has also turned to arbitration courts in a bid to reclaim his money. BLOOMBERG