BANGKOK
A former Thai commerce minister and a deputy-commerce minister were charged in absentia with corruption and malfeasance Tuesday in relation to an alleged bogus sale of rice stock to China.
Boonsong Teriyapirom and Poom Sarapol -- both members of the Yingluck Shinawatra government, overthrown in a coup last year -- were charged alongside 19 other people, including high-ranking civil servants and owners of trading companies, reported the Bangkok Post.
They face life in prison and total fines of $1 billion if sentenced. None of the accused was present for the arraignment.
The 21 are accused of having colluded between September 2011 and February 2013 to sell five millions tons of rice bought by the government under a controversial rice-subsidies scheme to two Chinese companies.
In its decision, the Thai Supreme court said that neither company was authorized to buy the rice by the Chinese government, and the sale did not fit government regulations governing competitive bidding.
At the time, the deal was touted by the Yingluck government -- deeply embarrassed by the more than 15 million tons of rice it had accumulated under the program remaining in storage -- as a major success.
Supreme court judges will review the documents and decide by April 20 if they will accept the case.
This arraignment is the latest in a long series of legal cases filed against the Yingluck government in relation to the loss-ridden rice-subsidies scheme.
Last January, Yingluck was retroactively impeached for dereliction of duty and banned from political activities for five years by the military-appointed National Assembly. She was accused of not having stopped the scheme while aware of the massive financial losses it caused to the state.
The anti-corruption commission also filed in January a criminal case against her, based on the same charges, which could send her to jail for up to ten years. And in February, the commission announced it will recommend the finance ministry file a civil suit against her for "$18 billion of financial losses" caused by the rice-subsidies scheme.
Critics of the rice-subsidies scheme say it provoked huge financial losses for the state, was run without transparency and opened the door for massive corruption.
In November, the Thai Finance Ministry said that the losses caused by the program amounted to $15.8 billion since July 2011, when Yingluck was elected PM.
