A year after Thailand's Court of Justice said it was investigating Toyota's suspected conspiracy to bribe current and former Thai Supreme Court judges, inquiries in the Southeast Asian kingdom and the U.S. are slowly piecing together evidence to back up suspicions first outlined in an internal WilmerHale investigation, including a multimillion-dollar payment to a small law firm that allegedly acted as a middleman.
Thailand's judiciary is rotten. It is politically biased, engages in acts of double standards, and has been shown to be inhumane in its sentencing. Underneath all of this, it is corrupt, long "protected" by is association with the monarchy. However, a bribery case in the USA and involving Toyota is shining a light on corruption…
published : 31 May 2021 at 21:02 Former judges Direk Ingkaninan (left) and Chaiyasit Trachutham prepare evidence to lodge a complaint against website Law360 and others at the Crime Suppression Division on Monday. (Photo by Wassayos Ngamkham)
Two former senior judges have filed complaints with crime police against a website that published reports accusing them of being involved in the Toyota bribery case.
Former Supreme Court president Direk Ingkhaninan said on Monday he would let the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) decide on how to take action but, in his view, this was a defamation case.
He insisted he had nothing to do with the case, both in the first court and appeal stages, and that he was no longer the president of the Supreme Court when the rulings came.
U.S. authorities are ramping up their Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation of Toyota, with federal prosecutors impaneling a grand jury in Texas as they seek any evidence the carmaker bribed top Thai judges to overturn a $350 million tax judgment, according to a U.S. law enforcement official and documents related to the investigation.