Former head of defunct BBC dies of cancer

October 20, 2012

BANGKOK, Oct 20 -- A former president of defunct Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BBC) Krirkkiat Jalichandra passed away on Saturday from cancer at the age of 63, ending his role in the saga of the failed BBC.

Mr Krirkkiat had reportedly suffered from lung cancer for many years and had appeared in court to fight a series of embezzlement charges in fragile physical condition since 2010.

Mr Krirkkiat was prosecuted in a number of embezzlement charges, brought against him after the collapse of BBC.

He was facing total of 17 fraud and embezzlement cases worth more than Bt50 billion. He had been sentenced to a total of 70 years in jail in at least seven different cases related to the collapse of the BBC in the 1990s.

He was fighting the cases while hearing in Court of Appeals was postponed because of his worsening health problems.

In the last Appeals Court ruling last December, it upheld a sentence of 20 years in jail for embezzling Bt1.22 billion from the BBC.

The BBC collapsed in 1996 due to enormous leverage and improper lending with insolvency sparking a financial sector crisis and the collapse contributed to the Asian financial crisis and the 1997 devaluation of the Thai baht.

Mr Krirkkiat had run the BBC under the guidance of Krirkkiat advisor Rakesh Saxena who is now facing his own fraud and embezzlement cases in Thailand.

Mr Saxena was extradited to Thailand after living in exile in Canada for 13 years. (MCOT online news)

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