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<mask>tra (; ; ; Chinese: 丘達新; ; born 26 July 1949), also known by Thai netizens as Tony Woodsome,  is a Thai businessman, politician and visiting professor. He served in the Thai Police from 1973 to 1987, and was the Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006. <mask> founded the mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service and the IT and telecommunications conglomerate Shin Corporation in 1987, ultimately making him one of the richest people in Thailand. He founded the Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT) in 1998 and, after a landslide electoral victory, became prime minister in 2001. He was the first democratically elected prime minister of Thailand to serve a full term and was re-elected in 2005 by an overwhelming majority. Thaksin declared a "war on drugs" in which more than 2,500 people were killed. <mask>'s government launched programs to reduce poverty, expand infrastructure, promote small and medium-sized enterprises, and extend universal healthcare coverage.Thaksin took a strong-arm approach against the separatist insurgency in the Muslim southern provinces. His decision to sell shares in his corporation for more than a billion tax-free dollars generated considerable controversy. A citizens' movement against <mask>, called People's Alliance for Democracy or "Yellow Shirts", launched mass protests, accusing him of corruption, abuse of power, and autocratic tendencies. Thaksin called snap elections that were boycotted by the opposition and invalidated by the Constitutional Court. <mask> was overthrown in a military coup on 19 September 2006. His party was outlawed and he was barred from political activity. Thaksin has since lived in self-imposed exile except for a brief visit to Thailand in 2008.He was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail for abuse of power. From abroad he has continued to influence Thai politics, through the People's Power Party that ruled in 2008, and its successor organisation Pheu Thai Party, as well as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship or "Red Shirt" movement. His younger sister Yingluck <mask> was the prime minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014. Heritage and early life
<mask>'s great-grandfather, Seng Saekhu, was an immigrant from Meizhou, Guangdong, China, who arrived in Siam in the 1860s and settled in Chiang Mai in 1908. His eldest son, Chiang Saekhu, was born in Chanthaburi in 1890 and married a Thai woman named Saeng Samana. Chiang's eldest son, Sak, adopted the Thai surname Shinawatra in 1938 because of the country's anti-Chinese movement, and the rest of the family also adopted it. Seng Saekhu had made his fortune through tax farming.Chiang Saekhu/Shinawatra later founded Shinawatra Silks and then moved into finance, construction, and property development. <mask>'s father, Loet, was born in Chiang Mai in 1919 and married Yindi Ramingwong. Yindi's father, Charoen Ramingwong (born: Wang Chuan Cheng), was a Hakka immigrant who married Princess Chanthip na Chiangmai, a minor member of the Lanna (Chiang Mai) royalty. In 1968, Loet <mask> entered politics and became an MP for Chiang Mai. Loet <mask> quit politics in 1976. He opened a coffee shop, grew oranges and flowers in Chiang Mai's San Kamphaeng District, and opened two cinemas, a gas station, and a car and motorcycle dealership. By the time <mask> was born, the Shinawatra family was one of the richest and most influential families in Chiang Mai.<mask> was born in San Kamphaeng, Chiang Mai Province. He is a Theravada Buddhist. He lived in the village of San Kamphaeng until he was 15, then moved to Chiang Mai to study at Montfort College. At 16, he helped run one of his father's cinemas. <mask> married Potjaman Damapong in July 1976. They have one son, Panthongtae and two daughters, Pinthongtha and Paethongtarn. They divorced in 2008.Thaksin's youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra (; ), is said to have entered politics in 2011 at her brother's request as leader of the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party. She was later elected prime minister on 3 July 2011. Thaksin earned a doctorate in criminology at Sam Houston State University. Thaksin lectured at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Mahidol University in 1979. Police career

Thaksin was a member of the 10th class of the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School, and was then admitted to the Thai Police Cadet Academy. Graduating in 1973, he joined the Royal Thai Police. He received a master's degree in criminal justice from Eastern Kentucky University in the United States in 1975, and three years later was awarded a doctorate in criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.Returning to Thailand, he reached the position of Deputy Superintendent of the Policy and Planning Sub-division, General Staff Division, Metropolitan Police Bureau, before resigning his commission in 1987 as a Police Lieutenant Colonel and leaving the police. His former wife, Potjaman Damapong, is the sister of Police General Priewpan Damapong and now uses her mother's maiden name. He is a former university lecturer at Royal Police Cadet Academy in 1975–1976. Thaksin's police lieutenant colonel rank was revoked in September 2015.

Business career

Early ventures
Thaksin and his wife began several businesses while he was still in the police, including a silk shop, a cinema, and an apartment building. All were failures and left him over 50 million baht in debt, which is equal to £108318.11. In 1982, he established ICSI. Using his police contacts, he leased computers to government agencies with modest success.However, later ventures in security systems (SOS) and public bus radio services (Bus Sound) all failed. In April 1986, he founded Advanced Info Service (AIS), which started as a computer rental business. In 1987 Thaksin resigned from the police. He then marketed a romance drama called Baan Sai Thong, which became a popular success in theatres. In 1988, he joined Pacific Telesis to operate and market the PacLink pager service, a modest success, though <mask> later sold his shares to establish his own paging company. In 1989, he launched IBC, a cable television company. At that time, Thaksin had a good relationship with Chalerm Yoobumrung, the minister of the Prime Minister's Office, who was in charge of Thai press and media.It is a question whether Chalerm granted the right to Thaksin to establish IBC to benefit his close friend, seeing that the project had been denied by the previous administration. However, it turned out to be a money loser and he eventually merged the company with the CP Group's UTV. In 1989, Thaksin established a data networking service, Shinawatra DataCom, today known as Advanced Data Network and owned by AIS and TOT. Many of Thaksin's businesses were later consolidated as Shin Corporation. Advanced Info Service and later ventures

Advanced Info Service (AIS) was given a monopoly contract by Thaksin's military contacts in 1986 and used the GSM-900 frequency band. AIS grew rapidly and became the largest mobile phone operator in Thailand. The Shinawatra Computer and Communications Group was founded in 1987 and listed in 1990.In 1990, Thaksin founded Shinawatra Satellite, which has developed and operated four Thaicom communications satellites. In 1999, the Shinawatra family spent some one billion baht establishing Shinawatra University in Pathum Thani. It offers international programs in engineering, architecture, and business management, though it ranks quite low in international rankings. In 2000, Thaksin acquired the ailing iTV television station from the Crown Property Bureau, Nation Multimedia Group, and Siam Commercial Bank. Entry into politics

Political career

Thaksin entered politics in late 1994 through Chamlong Srimuang, who had just reclaimed the position of Palang Dharma Party (PDP) leader from Boonchu Rojanastien. In a subsequent purge of Boonchu-affiliated PDP cabinet ministers, Thaksin was appointed Foreign Minister in December 1994, replacing Prasong Soonsiri. Thaksin left Palang Dharma along with many of its MPs in 1996, and founded the populist Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party in 1998.After a historic election victory in 2001, he became prime minister, the country's first to serve a full term. <mask> introduced a range of policies to alleviate rural poverty. Highly popular, they helped reduce poverty by half in four years. He launched the country's first universal healthcare program, the 30-baht scheme, as well as a notorious drug suppression campaign. <mask> embarked on a massive program of infrastructure investment, including roads, public transit, and Suvarnabhumi Airport. Nevertheless, public sector debt fell from 57 percent of GDP in January 2001 to 41 percent in September 2006. Levels of corruption were perceived to have fallen, with Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index improving from 3.2 to 3.8 between 2001 and 2005.The Thai Rak Thai party won in a landslide in the 2005 general election, which had the highest voter turnout in Thai history. Twelve years later, after <mask> was removed from power, Chamlong Srimuang expressed regret at getting "such a corrupt person" into politics. The PDP soon withdrew from the government over the Sor Por Kor 4-01 land reform corruption scandal, causing the government of Chuan Leekpai to collapse. PDP leader and Deputy Prime Minister under Banharn
Chamlong, strongly criticised for mishandling internal PDP politics in the last days of the Chuan-government, retired from politics and hand-picked <mask> as new PDP leader. <mask> ran for election for the first time for the constitutional tribunal and lost. <mask> joined the government of Banharn Silpa-Archa and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Bangkok traffic. In May 1996, he and four other PDP ministers quit the Banharn Cabinet (while retaining their MP seats), prompting a Cabinet reshuffle.Many have claimed that <mask>'s move was designed to help give Chamlong Srimuang a boost in the June 1996 Bangkok Governor elections, which Chamlong returned from retirement to contest. But Chamlong lost to Bhichit Rattakul, an independent. Chamlong's failure to buttress the PDP's failing power base in Bangkok amplified divisions in the PDP, particularly between Chamlong's "temple" faction and <mask>'s. Soon afterwards, Chamlong announced he was retiring again from politics. <mask> and the PDP pulled out of the Banharn-government in August 1996. In a subsequent no-confidence debate, the PDP gave evidence against the Banharn government, and in September 1996 Banharn dissolved Parliament. <mask> announced he would not run in the subsequent November 1996 elections but would remain as leader of the PDP.It suffered a fatal defeat in the elections, winning only one seat, and soon imploded, with most members resigning. Deputy Prime Minister under Chavalit
On 15 August 1997, <mask> became Deputy Prime Minister in Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's government, after the Thai baht was floated and devalued on 2 July 1997, sparking the Asian financial crisis. He held the position for only three months, leaving on 14 November when Chavalit resigned. During a censure debate on 27 September 1997, Democrat Suthep Thaugsuban accused Thaksin of profiting from insider information about the government's decision to float the baht, but the next Democrat party-led government did not investigate the accusations. During this period, <mask> also served on the Asia Advisory Board of the Washington, D.C. based Carlyle Group until he resigned upon becoming Prime Minister in 2001. The Thai Rak Thai Party and the 2001 elections
<mask> founded the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) ('Thais Love Thais') party in 1998 along with Somkid Jatusripitak, PDP ally Sudarat Keyuraphan, Purachai Piumsomboon, and 19 others. With a populist platform often attributed to Somkid, TRT promised universal access to healthcare, a three-year debt moratorium for farmers, and one million baht locally managed development funds for all Thai villages.After Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai dissolved parliament in November 2000, TRT won a sweeping victory in the January 2001 elections, the first held under the Constitution of 1997. At the time, some academics called it the most open, corruption-free election in Thai history. Thai Rak Thai won 248 parliamentary seats (more than any other party previously) and needed only three more seats to form a government. Nonetheless, <mask> opted for a broad coalition to gain total control and avoid a vote of no confidence, with the Chart Thai Party (41 seats) and the New Aspiration Party (36 seats), while absorbing the smaller Seritham Party (14 seats). <mask> became Prime Minister of Thailand on 9 February 2001. Prime Minister of Thailand, 2001–2006

<mask> <mask> was the first prime minister of Thailand to complete a full term in office, and his rule is generally agreed to have been one of the most distinctive in the country's modern history. He initiated many eye-catching policies that distinguished him from his predecessors.They affected the economy, public health, education, energy, social order, drug suppression and international relations. He gained one re-election victory. <mask>'s most effective policies were reducing rural poverty and the introduction of universal healthcare, allowing him to gather the hitherto-neglected support of the rural poor, especially in the populous northeast. His cabinet consisted of a broad coalition of academics, former student leaders, and former leaders of the Palang Dharma Party, including Prommin Lertsuridej, Chaturon Chaisang, Prapat Panyachatraksa, Surapong Suebwonglee, Somkid Jatusripitak, Surakiart Sathirathai, and Sudarat Keyuraphan. Traditional regional power brokers also flocked to his government. However, his government was increasingly accused of dictatorship, demagogy, corruption, conflicts of interest, human rights offences, acting undiplomatically, using legal loopholes and displaying hostility towards a free press. A highly controversial leader, he has also been the target of numerous allegations of lèse majesté, treason, usurping religious and royal authority, selling assets to international investors, and religious desecration.Economic policies
<mask>'s government designed its policies to appeal to the rural majority, initiating programs like village-managed microcredit development funds, low-interest agricultural loans, direct injections of cash into village development funds (the SML scheme), infrastructure development, and the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) rural, small, and medium enterprise development program. Thaksin's economic policies helped Thailand recover from the 1997 Asian financial crisis and substantially reduce poverty. GDP grew from 4.9 trillion baht in 2001 to 7.1 trillion baht in 2006. Thailand repaid its debts to the International Monetary Fund two years ahead of schedule. Income in the northeast, the poorest part of the country, rose by 46 percent from 2001 to 2006. Nationwide poverty fell from 21.3 to 11.3 percent. Thailand's Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, fell from .525 in 2000 to .499 in 2004 (it had risen from 1996 to 2000).The Stock Exchange of Thailand outperformed other markets in the region. After facing fiscal deficits in 2001 and 2002, Thaksin balanced the national budget, producing comfortable fiscal surpluses for 2003 to 2005. Despite a massive program of infrastructure investments, a balanced budget was projected for 2007. Public sector debt fell from 57 percent of GDP in January 2001 to 41 percent in September 2006. Foreign exchange reserves doubled from US$30 billion in 2001 to US$64 billion in 2006. Critics say Thaksinomics is little more than a Keynesian-style economic stimulus policy re-branded. Others claimed that the policies got the rural poor "hooked on Thaksin's hand-outs."Thaksin helped legalise Thailand's massive underground lottery system numbers game (Thai: หวย) to be run by the Government Lottery Office. Lottery sales of approximately 70 billion baht (US$2 billion) were used for social projects, including the "One District, One Scholarship" program. The Thaksin government also privatised MCOT, a large television and radio broadcaster. After the 2006 coup, many of Thaksin's economic policies were ended, the OTOP program was rebranded, the Government Lottery Office's program was deemed illegal, and the government nationalised several media outlets and energy companies. However, economists from the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) published a report indicating that many of the populist

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 policies had not boosted the economy and some were by coincidence. Educational policies
According to World Bank Thailand has recentralized rather than decentralized during his administration. One of Thaksin's educational reforms was school decentralisation, as mandated by the 1997 Constitution.It was to delegate school management from the over-centralized and bureaucratised Ministry of Education to Tambon Administrative Organizations (TAOs), but met with massive widespread opposition from Thailand's 700,000 teachers, who would be deprived of their status as civil servants. Teachers also feared that TAOs lacked the ability to manage schools. In the face of massive teacher protests and several threats of school closure, Thaksin compromised and gave teachers whose schools were transferred to TAO management two years to transfer to other schools. Other intended policy changes included learning reform and related curricular decentralisation, mostly through greater use of holistic education and less use of rote learning. To increase access to universities by lower income people, <mask> initiated the Student Loan Fund (SLF) and Income Contingency Loan (ICL) programs. He initiated the ICL program to increase access to higher education, whereby needy students could secure a loan to support their studies from vocational to university levels. Thai banks had traditionally not given educational loans.The ICL, however, required recipients to start repayments when their salaries reached 16,000 baht a month, with interest equivalent to inflation from the day the loan was granted. The SLF had an eligibility limit on family income, but interest was 1 per cent starting a year after graduation. The programs were merged and the income limit modified after <mask>'s government was overthrown. Thaksin was one of the first supporters of Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, with the Thai Ministry of Education committing to purchase 600,000 units. The junta later cancelled the project. Thaksin also initiated the controversial "One District, One Dream School" project, aimed at developing the quality of schools to ensure that every district had at least one high-quality school. It was criticised, with claims that the only beneficiaries were Thaksin and companies selling computers and educational equipment.Many schools fell deeply into debt in implementing the project, receiving inadequate financial support from the central government. In addition, he altered the state university entrance system, which had relied exclusively on nationally standardised exams. Thaksin pushed for greater weighting of senior high-school grades in the hope of focusing students on classroom learning rather than private entrance exam tutoring. Healthcare policies
Thaksin initiated two key healthcare policies: subsidised universal health care (UHC) in 2002 and low-cost universal access to anti-retroviral HIV medication (ARVs). Thaksin's 30 baht per visit UHC program won the praise of the general public, but was criticised by many physicians and officials. Prior to the program's introduction, a large portion of the population had no health insurance and only limited access to healthcare. The program helped increase healthcare access from 76% of the population to 96%.At its outset, UHC was reviled as a "populist" policy. Post-coup public health minister Mongkol Na Songkhla called the 30 baht program a "marketing gimmick". Nearly half of UHC patients were dissatisfied with the treatment they received. The program has downsides: excessive workloads for health care providers, crowded waiting rooms, and insufficient time spent diagnosing each patient, and costs have tripled from 56 million baht in 2006 to 166 million baht in 2019, but still remain below one percent of GDP. On balance, as a Bangkok Post columnist put it, "... the criticism was wrong. It has become the country's most valuable state welfare service,..."

From 2001 to 2004, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS as well as the overall prevalence rate "noticeably declined". The War on Drugs

On 14 January 2003, Thaksin launched a campaign to rid "every square inch of the country" of drugs in three months.It consisted of changing the punishment policy for drug addicts, setting provincial arrest and seizure targets including "blacklists", awarding government officials for achieving targets and threatening punishment for those who failed to make the quota, targeting dealers, and "ruthless" implementation. In the first three months, Human Rights Watch reports that 2,275 people were extrajudicially executed. The government claimed that only around 50 of the deaths were at the hands of the police, the rest being drug traffickers who were being silenced by their dealers and their dealers' dealers. Human rights critics claimed a large number were extrajudicially executed. King Bhumibol, in a 2003 birthday speech, praised Thaksin:

Bhumibol also asked the commander of the police to investigate the killings. Police Commander Sant Sarutanond reopened investigations into the deaths, and again claimed that few of the deaths were at the hands of the police. The war on drugs was widely criticised by the international community.<mask> requested that the UN Commission on Human Rights send a special envoy to evaluate the situation, but said in an interview, "The United Nations is not my father. I am not worried about any UN visit to Thailand on this issue." After the 2006 coup, the military junta appointed a committee to investigate the anti-drug campaign. Former Attorney General Kanit Na Nakorn led the committee. Concerning the committee's results The Economist reported in January 2008: "Over half of those killed in 2003 had no links to the drugs trade. The panel blamed the violence on a government 'shoot-to-kill' policy based on flawed blacklists. But far from leading to the prosecutions of those involved, its findings have been buried.The outgoing interim prime minister, Surayud Chulanont, took office vowing to right Mr <mask>'s wrongs. Yet this week he said there was insufficient evidence to take legal action over the killings. It is easy to see why the tide has turned. Sunai Phasuk, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, a lobbying group, says that the panel's original report named the politicians who egged on the gunmen. But after the PPP won last month's elections, those names were omitted." While he was opposition leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva accused <mask> of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the campaign. After being appointed Prime Minister, Abhisit opened an investigation into the killings, claiming that a successful probe could lead to prosecution by the International Criminal Court.Former attorney-general Kampee Kaewcharoen led the investigation and the investigation committee was approved by Abhisit's Cabinet. Abhisit denied that the probe was politically motivated. Witnesses and victims were urged to report to the Department of Special Investigation, which operated directly under Abhisit's control. Energy policies

In energy policy, the Thaksin government continued the Chuan Leekpai government's privatisation agenda, but with important changes. Whereas the Chuan government's post-Asian financial crisis policies sought economic efficiency through industry fragmentation and wholesale power pool competition, Thaksin's policies aimed to create national champions that could reliably support stronger economic growth and become important players in regional energy markets. Thaksin also initiated a policy to encourage renewable energy and energy conservation. Many Thaksin-era energy policies were reversed following the 2006 coup.South Thailand insurgency

A resurgence in violence began in 2001 in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand with their Muslim, ethnic Malay majority. There is much controversy about the causes of this escalation. Attacks after 2001 concentrated on police, the military, and schools, but civilians (including Buddhist monks) are also regular targets. <mask> was widely criticised for his management of the situation. Of three key controversial incidents, the first was the Army's storming of the Krue Se Mosque, where protesters had holed up and were killed. The second, in October 2004, was the killing of 84 Muslim demonstrators at Tak Bai, when the Army broke up a peaceful protest. Hundreds of detainees were forced at gunpoint to lie shackled and prone in Army trucks, stacked like cordwood.The trucks were delayed from moving to the detainment area for hours. The 84 victims were reported to have been asphyxiated, crushed or died of overheating. The precise nature and cause of death have been subject to controversy and doubt because of lack of transparency and absence of depth in investigations made. There are other reports of many more deaths but these have not been substantiated. In a third incident, Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit disappeared, allegedly abducted and killed by police for his role in defending alleged insurgents who claimed to have been tortured. Despite witness testimony and forensic evidence during the court of police investigations and court trials, all allegations against police said to be involved were dropped and the enforced disappearance case closed. Thaksin announced an escalation of military and police activity in the region.In July 2005, Thaksin enacted an Emergency Decree to manage the three troubled provinces. Several human rights organisations expressed their concerns that the decree might be used to violate civil liberties. In March 2005, Thaksin established the National Reconciliation Commission, chaired by former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun to oversee efforts to bring peace to the troubled South. In its final report in June 2006, the commission proposed introducing elements of Islamic law and making Pattani-Malay (Yawi) an official language in the region along with Thai. The Thaksin administration assigned a government committee to study the report, but nothing came of it. Thaksin blamed Malaysia's jungle that has occasionally been used to train Islamic militants to cause violence in the south and Indonesia for being an inspiration to the militants. Administrative reform
One of the most visible of Thaksin's administrative reforms was the restructuring of government department and ministries, labelled the "big bang."It was hailed as a "historic breakthrough" and "the first major reorganization of ministries since King Chulalongkorn set up Thailand's modern system of departmental government in 1897." Plans had been studied for years to loosen perceived rigidities and inertia of the old system but were not implemented until the Thaksin government. https://web.archive.org/web/20071016205115/http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=19066

The restructuring was designed to streamline the bureaucracy and focus it on performance and results. New ministries were carved out in Social and Human Security Development, Tourism and Sports, Natural Resources and Environment, Information and Communication Technology, and Culture. Thaksin transformed the role of provincial governors to that of active policy managers. Historically, central government ministries operated in the provinces through field offices headed by senior officials who reported back to Bangkok, while the Interior Ministry appointed provincial governors whose role was largely ceremonial. A key component of Thaksin's administrative reform policy, the "CEO-governors" epitomised what was called his "transformation of the operating style of the traditional bureaucracy into a more results-oriented instrument that would be responsive."Piloted in 2001 and introduced in all provinces in October 2003, CEO-governors were put in charge of planning and co-ordinating provincial development and became accountable for overall provincial affairs. The "CEO governors" were assisted by "provincial CFOs" from the Ministry of Finance who reported directly to each governor. Governors were authorised to raise funds by issuing bonds and were given an intensive training course. After the coup, the junta reverted the role of governors. The Thaksin era also saw the opening of a number of government one-stop service centres to reduce red tape for anything from investment to utilities and ID-card processing. Foreign policies

Thaksin initiated negotiations for several free trade agreements with China, Australia, Bahrain, India, and the US. The latter especially was criticised, with claims that high-cost Thai industries could be wiped out.Thailand joined the US-led invasion of Iraq, sending a 423-strong humanitarian contingent. It withdrew its troops on 10 September 2004. Two Thai soldiers died in Iraq in an insurgent attack. <mask> announced that Thailand would forsake foreign aid, and work with donor countries to assist in the development of neighbours in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. <mask> was repeatedly attacked for acting undiplomatically with foreign leaders and the international community. Besides his famous swipe at the UN (see The 'war on drugs' above), there were also allegations of gaffes at international meetings. <mask> was keen to position Thailand as a regional leader, initiating various development projects in poorer neighbouring countries like Laos.More controversially, he established close, friendly ties with the Burmese dictatorship, including extending the impoverished country a 4 billion baht credit line so it could conclude a satellite telecom deal with his family business. <mask> energetically supported his former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai's somewhat improbable campaign to become UN Secretary General. Suvarnabhumi Airport
Despite debate and long abandonment of the plan due to the stability of the ground for the location of the airport, the Thaksin government pushed to complete the construction of the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport. The airport was opened a week after <mask>'s government was overthrown. Members of <mask>'s government were accused of corruption in the Suvarnabhumi Airport project. These allegations were used by the military junta to justify the 2006 coup. The junta initiated several investigations into the airport.Nevertheless, investigative panels found that damage to the airport was "minute" and "common." The cost of repairing the damage was estimated at less than one percent of the total airport cost. The junta was accused by its opponents of delaying airport repairs and intensifying the airport's problems to pin further blame on the Thaksin government. Criticism

Corruption
Thaksin was accused of "policy corruption", such as infrastructure and liberalisation policies that, while legal "...abuse the public's interest,..." Supannee Chai-amporn and Sirinthip Arun-rue of the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) claimed that policy corruption caused the state to spend 5 to 30 percent more than it otherwise should have spent, costing the state an additional 400 billion baht. Thaksin critics point to more examples of corruption: the Thailand Board of Investment's (BOI) granting tax breaks worth a total of 16.4 billion baht to Shin Satellite for its iPSTAR project in 2003, and the Transport Ministry's decision the same year to abolish the minimum air fare of 3.8 baht per kilometre when Shin Corporation was about to consummate a joint venture with low-cost carrier AirAsia. After the 2006 coup, the military junta-appointed Assets Examination Committee froze Thaksin's assets based on charges of policy corruption. Thaksin denied the allegations."They just made up a beautiful term to use against me. There's no such thing in this government. Our policies only serve the interests of the majority of the people", he said. From 2002 to 2006, the stock price of Shin Corporation increased from 38 to 104 baht, up 173 percent, while the stock price of Shin Satellite fell. In the same period, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index rose 161 per cent, and the price of other major SET blue chip companies increased vastly more. Industry deregulation caused the market share of AIS to fall from 68 percent to 53 percent. Transparency International reported that Thailand's reputation for transparency among business executives improved somewhat during the years of the Thaksin government.In 2001, Thailand's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score was 3.2 (ranked 61), whilst in 2005, the CPI was 3.8 (ranked 59). A study of governance indicators worldwide by the World Bank gave Thailand a lower score

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 on "control of corruption" from 2002 to 2005 under Thaksin when compared to the Democrat-led government of 1998–2000. In 2008 <mask> was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in absentia over a corrupt land deal. In a ruling that made him the first Thai politician ever to be convicted of corruption committed while prime minister, Thaksin was found to have violated conflict of interest rules in helping his wife buy land from a state agency at a seemingly low price. Other charges
Immediately after the events of March 2010, Abhisit Vejjajiva stated that he would talk to the red shirt leadership, but not to Thaksin. He criticised Thaksin's wealth and extravagance, contrasting the alleged opulence of the premier's house and the humbler, agrarian roots of many of his supporters. Shortly after, he condemned his opponent's self-proclaimed affinity with ordinary people, the "phrai" (), arguing that Thaksin was far closer to the "ammart", or the traditional elites in Thailand's army, bureaucracy, and political parties.Thaksin's government was accused of exerting political influence in its crackdown on unlicensed community radio stations, and Thaksin brought defamation lawsuits against critical journalists. Political crisis of 2005–2006

2005 re-election
Under the slogans "Four Years of RepairFour years of Reconstruction" and "Building Opportunities", <mask> and the TRT won landslide victories in February 2005 elections, winning 374 of 500 seats in parliament. The election had the highest voter turnout in Thai history. But his second term was soon beset by protests, with claims that he presided over a "parliamentary dictatorship". The political crisis was catalysed by accusations published by media mogul and popular talk show host Sondhi Limthongkul, a former Thaksin supporter who had broken with him. These included accusations that Thaksin:
 Restricted press freedom by suing Sondhi after he printed a sermon by a Luang Ta Maha Bua, a controversial monk. Masterminded the desecration of the famous Erawan Shrine

Sale of Shin Corporation

On 23 January 2006, the Shinawatra family sold their entire stake in Shin Corporation to Temasek Holdings.The Shinawatra and Damapong families netted about 73 billion baht (about US$1.88 billion) tax-free from the sale, using a regulation that made individuals who sell shares on the stock exchange exempt from capital gains tax. Thaksin was the target of accusations of corruption for selling forbidden national assets such as national utility company to a foreign entity in exchange for personal profits and kickbacks. Thai laws at the time disallowed the sale of integral assets of national importance to the public or to any foreign entity, but Thaksin amended the laws to allow such sale. Protests followed the Shin Corporation sale, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose leaders included Chamlong and Sondhi. Numbers soon swelled to tens of thousands occupying the area around Government House in Bangkok. House dissolution and election

Thaksin announced the dissolution of parliament on 24 February 2006. General elections were scheduled for 2 April.Thaksin was attacked for calling for snap elections, which in effect prevented any member of parliament from changing parties. In an editorial, The Nation noted it that, "It fails to take into consideration a major fallacy of the concept [of democracy], particularly in a less-developed democracy like ours, in which the impoverished, poorly informed masses are easily manipulated by people of his ilk. And <mask>'s manipulation has been well documented." <mask>'s TRT Party won the widely boycotted elections, gaining 462 seats in parliament, with a ratio of yes-voters to no-voters of 16:10, not counting non-voters. However, by-elections were needed for 40 TRT candidates who failed to win the minimum 20 percent required by the 1997 Constitution in uncontested races. The Democrat Party refused to contest them and, along with the PAD, petitioned the Central Administrative Court to cancel them. Chamlong Srimuang declared that the PAD would ignore the elections and "go on rallying until <mask> resigns and Thailand gets a royally appointed prime minister".<mask> had announced on 4 April 2006 that he would not accept the post of prime minister after parliament reconvened, but would continue as caretaker prime minister until then. He then delegated his functions to caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Wannasathit, moved out of Government House, and went on vacation. Elections were held on 25 April and resulted in the TRT winning 25 of the constituencies and losing two. Yet another round of by-elections on 29 April was scheduled for 13 constituencies. The Thai Rak Thai Party was later accused and found guilty of paying smaller parties to contest the election to fulfill the 20 percent rule, while the Democrat Party was accused of paying smaller parties not to. The by-elections were suspended by the Constitutional Court while it deliberated whether or not to annul the main elections. In press interviews in exile, Thaksin was to insist on his technical majority.Invalidation of the elections
On 8 May 2006, the Constitutional Court ruled 8–6 to invalidate the April elections based on the awkward positioning of voting booths. The ruling was called a landmark case in "judicial activism". The Democrat Party, which had boycotted the April elections, said they were now ready to contest an October election. A new election was ordered and later set for 15 October 2006. The court found the Election Commissioners guilty of malfeasance and jailed them. But the election was cancelled when the military seized power on 19 September. The ouster
The Thaksin government faced allegations of corruption, authoritarianism, treason, conflicts of interest, acting non-diplomatically, and muzzling of the press.<mask> was accused of tax evasion, lèse majesté (insulting King Bhumibol), and selling assets of Thai companies to international investors. Independent bodies, including Amnesty International, criticised <mask>'s human rights record. <mask> was also charged for concealing his wealth during his premiership. Protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy massed in 2006, and on 19 September 2006 a military junta which later called itself the Council for National Security (CNS) replaced <mask>'s caretaker government in a coup while he was abroad. The Constitutional Tribunal dissolved the Thai Rak Thai party for electoral fraud ex post facto, banning him and TRT executives from politics for five years. The CNS-appointed Assets Examination Committee froze <mask> and his family's assets in Thailand, totalling 76 billion baht (US$2.2 billion), claiming he had become unusually wealthy while in office. <mask> and his wife had declared assets totalling 15.1 billion baht when he took office in 2001, although he had transferred many of his assets to his children and associates before taking office.<mask> returned to Thailand on 28 February 2008, after the People's Power Party, which he supported, won the post-coup elections. But after visiting Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, he did not return to hear the final supreme court sentence and applied for asylum in the United Kingdom. This was refused, after which he had to move about from one country to another. In October 2008, the Thai Supreme Court found him guilty of a conflict of interest and sentenced him in absentia to two years imprisonment. The People's Power Party was later dissolved by the Supreme Court, but party members regrouped to form the Pheu Thai Party, which <mask> also supported. <mask> is a supporter, and alleged bankroller, of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (aka "Red Shirts"). The government revoked <mask>'s passport for his role in the UDD's protests during Songkran 2009.On 26 February 2010, the Supreme Court seized 46 billion baht of his frozen assets, after finding him guilty of abnormal wealth. In 2009 it was announced that Thaksin had obtained Montenegrin citizenship through that country's economic citizenship program. September 2006 coup

On the evening of 19 September 2006, while Thaksin was visiting New York City to attend a UN summit and speak at the Council on Foreign Relations, the army took control of Bangkok. At Government House, some 50 soldiers ordered approximately 220 policemen in the complex to lay down their weapons. Troops also surrounded the Thaicom satellite receiving station and state-run television station Channel 11. By the morning of 20 September, tanks and military vehicles armed with machine guns were stationed at Government House, the Royal Plaza, and Ratchadamnoen Avenue. Troops participating in the coup were from the 1st and 3rd Army Regions, the Internal Security Operations Command, the Special Warfare Centre, army units from Nakhon Ratchasima and Prachinburi, and navy sailors.According to coup leader Army General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, coup leaders had arrested Deputy Prime Minister Chitchai Wannasathit and Defense Minister Thammarak Isaragura na Ayuthaya. The military, originally calling itself the Council for Democratic Reform under the Constitutional Monarch (CDRM), issued a statement citing the government's alleged lèse majesté, corruption, interference with state agencies, and creation of social divisions as reasons for the coup. It declared the King of Thailand the head of state, and said elections would be held soon to return democracy to the country. <mask> departed New York for Great Britain, where he had family. Thai Rak Thai Party
Many Thai Rak Thai party members were reported to have resigned from the party in the aftermath of the coup for fear that the party would be dissolved by the junta and its members banned from politics. These included Somsak Thepsuthin and 100 members of the Wang Nam Yen faction. It was not clear whether Suriya Jungrungreangkit, another influential member of the faction, would also resign.Sontaya Kunplome was reported to have led 20 members of the Chonburi faction in resigning from the party. On 2 October 2006 <mask> and his former deputy Somkid Jatusipitak resigned from the TRT. Chaturon Chaisang took over as party head. The TRT was dissolved on 30 May 2007 by the Constitutional Tribunal, which banned over 100 of its executives, including <mask>, from politics for five years, based on charges that two party executives (Defense Minister Thammarak and Pongsak Raktapongpaisarn) bribed a smaller party to stand in the April 2006 election. The Democrat party was cleared on a similar charge. 2006 Bangkok New Year's Eve bombings

On 31 December 2006 and 1 January 2007, several bombs exploded in Bangkok, killing three and wounding a number of bystanders. Prime Minister General Surayud Chulanont accused "those who lost power as a result of the military takeover" of masterminding the bombings, but did not directly identify Thaksin.<mask> went on CNN to publicly deny any involvement in the bombings. The government did not make any arrests in the case. Legal charges
Thaksin's diplomatic passport was revoked on 31 December 2006 after the junta accused him of engaging in political activities while in exile. Thai embassies were ordered not to aid him in his travels. A junta-appointed Assets Examination Committee (AEC) froze Thaksin's assets and attempted to bring charges against him. The AEC was criticised for being stacked with anti-Thaksin appointees. At one point, AEC Secretary Kaewsan Atibodhi claimed that "evidence and witnesses are useless", when an AEC panel recommended legal action without hearing 300 witnesses or considering 100 additional pieces of evidence.The AEC froze Thaksin's assets. In January 2007, the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) complied with an AEC request to file a charge against <mask> and his wife for their purchase of four 772 million baht plots of land from the FIDF in 2003. The charge was based on an alleged violation of Article 100 of the National Counter Corruption Act, which prohibits government officials and their spouses from entering into or having interests in contracts made with state agencies under their authority. The AEC also accused Thaksin of issuing an unlawful cabinet resolution approving the spending of state funds to buy rubber saplings. In March 2007, the Office of the Attorney-General charged Thaksin's wife and brother-in-law with conspiring to evade taxes of 546 million baht (US$15.6 million) in a 1997 transfer of Shin Corporation shares. The AEC found Thaksin guilty of malfeasance for obstructing competition by imposing an excise tax on telecom operators. Thaksin's Cabinet had approved the relevant executive decree in 2003.Purchase of Manchester City Football Club
As prime minister, <mask> had unsuccessfully sought to buy the English Premier League football clubs Fulham and later Liverpool, in what critics claimed was a publicity stunt in response to his political problems. On 21 June 2007, now out of office, <mask> bought Premier League club Manchester City for £81.6 million. He became briefly popular with fans (who nicknamed him "Frank",) especially after appointing Sven-Göran Eriksson manager of the club and bringing in prominent players. Eriksson was later critical of Thaksin's running of the club, saying "he [Thaksin] didn't understand football – he hadn't a clue." He sold the club to investors from Abu Dhabi United Group in September 2008 for a reported £200 million. After selling Manchester City, <mask> was nominated as "honorary president" but did not have any administrative responsibilities. However, he was later dismissed as honorary club president after the club took a position against him following his conviction and was "on the run" from Thai authorities.Convictions and exile
In May 2007, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said Thaksin was free to return to Thailand, and he would personally guarantee <mask>'s safety. In January 2008 Thaksin's wife Potjaman was arrested on arrival in Bangkok but released on bail after appearing at the Supreme Court, with orders not to leave the country. She was set to be tried for alleged violation of stock-trading and land sale laws. On 28 February 2008, <mask> arrived in Bangkok after 17 months in exile. Thaksin stated that he would not re-enter politics and wished to focus on his football interests. In March Thaksin pleaded not guilty before the Supreme Court in one of his two criminal corruption cases. He was ordered to report back on 11 April after the court granted a month-long trip to England.In June the Supreme Court denied <mask>'s request to travel to China and Britain, since his corruption case was set for trial and was ordered to surrender his passport after arraignment. In July the court assumed jurisdiction over the fourth corruption charge against Thaksin concerning soft loans to Burma. The court also agreed to hear allegations that <mask>, his former cabinet, and three members of the current government broke anti-gambling laws by setting up the new state lottery in 2003. Potjaman was found guilty on 31 July and sentenced to three years imprisonment, then released on bail. The Bangkok Criminal Court also convicted her adopted brother Bhanapot Damapong and her secretary, who allegedly held assets for Thaksin by proxy, of tax evasion. Request for asylum in the United Kingdom

On 10 August 2008, Thaksin and Potjaman violated their bail terms by attending the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Beijing. Stating that he wished to return to Thailand but claimed it was not currently safe for him and his family.Thaksin sought political asylum in the United Kingdom, claiming his political enemies were interfering with the judiciary. There is no evidence that he proceeded with his request and his asylum case was neither approved nor declined. The Thailand Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions issued a second arrest warrant on 16 September 2008 against <mask> over another of the four pending corruption cases and ordered suspension of the trial. Several more arrest warrants were issued over subsequent no-shows at various corruption trials. Ratchadaphisek land verdict

On 21 October 2008, the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions ruled that <mask>, while prime minister, abused his power to help his wife buy public land at auction, and sentenced him to two years in jail. Soon after, <mask> told Reuters, "I have been informed of the result. I had long anticipated that it would turn out this way", and added

masks: Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin


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 that the case was politically motivated.Chief prosecutor Seksan Bangsombun called on Britain to extradite him. Thaksin now denied he was seeking political asylum in Britain. Self-imposed exile
On 10 November 2008, a Philippine spokesman said his government would "politely" turn down any request for political refuge from Thaksin due to Manila's "friendly" relations with Bangkok. The British Government Home Office, meanwhile, revoked Potjaman and Thaksin's visas due to their convictions, while the Bangkok British Embassy e-mailed airlines asking them to disallow either of them to board flights to Britain. In late 2008, Arabian Business reported that the UK froze US$4.2 billion of his assets in the UK. The UK government did not confirm or deny this claim. Thaksin had reportedly considered sanctuaries such as China, the Bahamas, Nicaragua, and several other countries in South America and Africa.Reports said the Shinawatras were granted honorary citizenship by the Bahamas and Nicaragua, and were building a £5.5 million home in China. As of late-May 2009, he reportedly remained in Dubai. A spokesman claimed Thaksin was travelling on six passports, none of them Thai. In December 2008 Thaksin obtained a residency permit for Germany which was subsequently withdrawn on 28 May 2009 when the German government became aware of the arrangement. Thaksin then obtained status as a diplomat of Nicaragua. Guido Westerwelle, German foreign minister, lifted the travel restriction banning Thaksin from entering Germany on 15 July 2011 after the election victory of Thaksin's proxy party. In a November 2009 interview, <mask> told The Times that he was living in Dubai, still had access to about US$100 million of his money outside of Thailand, and was investing in gold mines, diamond polishing, and lottery licenses in various countries.Songkran unrest

In mid-April 2009, violent protests of mostly Thaksin supporters calling themselves the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) led to the cancellation of the ASEAN summit in Pattaya and a declaration of a state of emergency in Bangkok. Thaksin had given encouragement at UDD rallies via satellite and phone-in link, at one point calling for a "people's revolution". Following suppression of the protests he claimed to have merely been offering "moral support". Thaksin supported protests by the UDD against the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, demanding Thaksin be allowed to return free from all the earlier corruption charges. Thaksin denied leading the UDD, claiming he only gave them "moral support". Money laundering allegations
In April 2009, Privy Councilor General Pichitr Kullavanijaya reported he had been informed by former US ambassador to Thailand Ralph L. Boyce that Thaksin had laundered 100 billion baht (US$2.8 billion) through Cayman Island bank accounts to organise the anti-government protests. Boyce himself said that he had "...no idea why he was cited as a knowledgeable source about where Thaksin may or may not have made deposits, and that he has no such information."Economic advisor to Cambodia
On 4 November 2009, it was announced that <mask> had been appointed as special advisor to the Cambodian government and Hun Sen and stated that Cambodia would refuse to extradite Thaksin because it considered him a victim of political persecution. On 5 November 2009, both countries recalled their ambassadors. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva stated this was "the first diplomatic retaliation measure". Stating Cambodia was interfering in Thailand's internal affairs and as a result all bilateral agreements would be reviewed. Sok An, a member of the Council of Ministers and Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia, said <mask>'s appointment is a decision internal to Cambodia and "conforms to international practice". The mutual withdrawal of ambassadors is the most severe diplomatic action to have occurred between the two countries. Spy controversy
On 11 November 2009, Sivarak Chutipong was arrested by Cambodian police for passing the confidential flight plans of Thaksin and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to Kamrob Palawatwichai, First Secretary of the Royal Thai Embassy in Cambodia.Sivarak was a Thai engineer working in Cambodia for Cambodia Air Traffic Service, the private firm which managed air traffic control in Cambodia. Sivarak denied that he was a spy, and the Thai government claimed that he was innocent and that the incident was a Thaksin/Cambodian plot to further damage relations between the two countries. The Thai First Secretary was expelled from Cambodia. Sivarak demanded that former First Secretary Kamrob speak out and restore his damaged reputation by confirming he was not involved in a spy ring. Kamrob refused to provide comment to the press throughout the controversy, and Kasit's secretary, Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, insisted that although that there was no misconduct on the part of the First Secretary or Sivarak, there would be no statement from Kamrob. Sivarak was later sentenced to jail for seven years. Thaksin requested the Cambodian government to pardon Sivarak, and he was soon pardoned by King Norodom Sihamoni and expelled.Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban later accused Sivarak of staging his own arrest in order to discredit the Abhisit government. Former Thai spy chief and Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri concurred, claiming, "It has been a set-up from the beginning. Frozen asset seizure

Prior to the verdict
On 26 February 2010, the Thai Supreme Court was scheduled to render its verdict on whether to seize Thaksin's Thai assets, worth 76 billion baht frozen by the AEC after the coup. The AEC froze the assets under the authority of Announcement No. 30 of the military junta. Tensions ran high throughout Thailand. Tens of thousands of government security forces were deployed, particularly in routes leading to Bangkok.However, the UDD denied that it would rally on the date of the verdict. The nine Supreme Court judges had to make a judgment on accusations of abnormal wealth through policy corruption. Policy corruption, was defined by the court as the abuse of powers by implementing economic policies that, while in themselves legal and of potential benefit to society and the economy, also aided companies that were owned in part by the policy maker. The prosecution claimed that Thaksin abused his powers five times while premier. The verdict
The court first ruled that Thaksin and Potjaman were the real owners of the assets, rather than his children and relatives. The court also ruled that it had the authority to seize assets, based on the announcements of the junta. The court found Thaksin guilty of four out of five policy corruption, and ordered that 46 billion baht be seized.The remaining 30 billion was to remain frozen. Count 1: Conversion of telecom concession fees into excise charges. Previously, telecom operators had to pay TOT/CAT a percentage of their revenue as a concession fee (TOT/CAT are state-owned enterprises, although they were going through the process of privatisation). The Thaksin government modified this into a system wherein all operators would instead directly pay the government an equivalent excise tax. The imposition of excise tax here would eventually be passed on to consumers. Thaksin claimed that all operators continued to pay the same total costs. The judges ruled that this benefited AIS while harming TOT, and thus was an abuse of power.Count 2: Modification of a revenue sharing agreement on pre-paid mobile services. Previously, telecom operators had to pay TOT a percentage of their revenues for post-paid mobile services. To offer pre-paid services, which generally cost the consumer less, AIS negotiated with TOT to design a revenue sharing agreement for pre-paid services that offered less revenue to TOT, an estimated loss of 14.2 billion baht (revenue reduced from 25 to 20 percent) from 2001 to 2006 and another estimated loss of 56 billion baht (revenue reduced from 30 to 20 percent) from 2006 to 2015. The judges ruled that the terms of the pre-paid agreement harmed TOT while benefiting AIS. The judges did not dispute the fact that TOT's total revenue actually increased substantially as a result of the agreement, but noted that the rise in pre-paid revenue came about while harming TOT's post-paid revenue. The massive growth in Thai mobile penetration from 13 percent in 2001 to 80 percent in 2007, due almost completely to pre-paid services, and the reduction in AIS market share from 68 to 53 percent in the same period were not taken into account by the court. Count 3: Modification of mobile roaming agreement.Previously, there were no roaming agreements between mobile operators – subscribers from one operator were not allowed to use services on another operator's network, thus limiting the growth of the mobile industry. Under the Thaksin government, roaming was allowed, with roaming fees deducted from the revenue that AIS and other operators had to share with TOT and other state enterprises. Essentially, TOT helped AIS shoulder the costs of its subscribers roaming on the mobile networks of other operators. This reduced TOT and CAT's income while benefiting the operators. However, the judges ruled that it while benefited AIS, it did so to the benefit of AIS's new owners (Temasek Holdings) rather than Thaksin, and hence was not an abuse of power. Count 4: Replacement of ThaiCom 4 with iPSTAR. A previous government had originally contracted with ShinSat to launch and operate ThaiCom 4 as a backup satellite for ThaiCom 3.Instead, ShinSat negotiated with the Thaksin government to launch iPSTAR, at the time the largest commercial satellite in history, which it claimed could offer commercial internet services while also providing backup for ThaiCom 3. However, the claim is not technically possible since iPSTAR does not have C-band transponders as Thaicom 3. Shin Corp's ownership in ShinSat was subsequently reduced from 51% to 40%. The judges found that the changes in ownership and satellite specification change reduced Thailand's communications security by not having the backup satellite for ThaiCom 3 on the one-to-one basis. It also noted that the negotiations allowed ShinSat to launch a satellite with much greater commercial potential than ThaiCom 4 without having to bid for a separate concession agreement. Count 5: EXIM Bank loan to Myanmar to pay for ThaiCom services. Thaksin was scheduled to meet with Burmese leaders to negotiate trade deals between the two countries.One of the deals negotiated gave Myanmar a Thai EXIM Bank loan to purchase 376 million baht in satellite services from ShinSat. Thaksin noted that many deals were struck in the negotiations, and that 16 other companies also benefited from the EXIM Bank's loans. The judges ruled that the loans gave preferential treatment to Thaksin, and hence were an abuse of power. The judges decided to seize 46 billion differences in value of Shin Corp. shares from the date when he came to office and the value when the shares were sold to Singapore's Temasek Holdings in early 2006. Note that, Thaksin had declared around 500 million baht in assets and Pojaman had 8 billion to 9 billion baht while Thaksin served as prime minister. Nevertheless, during that period, Shin shares gained 121%, compared with a 128% gain in the benchmark SET index, while Siam Cement, one of Thailand's premier blue chip companies, gained 717%. The judges did not find that Thaksin was guilty of malfeasance.They also noted that any benefit to the government from <mask>'s policies was irrelevant to the ruling. The government reaped approximately 100 billion baht in increased revenue from changes in the concession agreements alone. Aftermath
In an email to his supporters, <mask> claimed that the court was used as a tool. He also noted how the Thai stock market rose to the benefit of many companies, not just his, and claimed that all charges against him were politically motivated. He thanked his supporters for not protesting while the verdict was being read, and implored them to use non-violent means in the future. Pojaman na Pombejra insisted that tens of billions of baht of her wealth had been given to her children and relatives well before <mask> took office in 2001 and denied that her children and relatives were nominees of her and her husband. She also denied having any control over Ample Rich and Win Mark, two firms that the AEC had accused of being her nominees.In spite of Pojaman's claim, <mask> was the authorised signature for Ample Rich through 2005, making him the only individual authorised to withdraw funds from the company's account until he transferred the authority to his children, four years after he took office in 2001. Some UDD members held a small protest in front of the court, but did not disrupt the ruling as the government had predicted they would. The UDD leaders announced that a large-scale protest was scheduled to be held on 14 March 2010. On the evening of 27 February, M67 grenades were thrown from a motorcycle outside three branches of Bangkok Bank. Nobody was hurt or injured in the attacks. The perpetrators were not caught, and no organisation claimed responsibility for the attacks. Thaksin and the UDD were quick to deny any involvement.An arrest warrant was issued based on sketches of a motorcycle driver. Transfer of Shin Corp. Shares
The law does not allow the prime minister to run a side business while holding office. Charges were pressed against <mask> on wealth concealment while in office. Prior to the wealth declaration of <mask> and his family when he took office, there had been an appeal to The National Anti-Corruption Commission that there were some suspicions about the numbers in the report. Transferring to maid and driver
Thaksin was charged with illegally concealing billions of baht of his wealth by transferring ownership of Shin Corp. shares to his drivers and maids without their knowledge. Thaksin tearfully told the Constitutional Court that it was an honest mistake before the Court acquitted him on the charges. Transferring shares to children who reached maturity
There was also a controversy over whether there was any hidden tax evasion when <mask> and Potjaman transferred their Shin Corporation shares to their children.Panthongtae and Pinthongta Shinawatra were accused of being nominees of their parents. The transfer of shares from Thaksin and Potjaman to Parnthongtae was claimed to have been a sham, since there was no actual transfer of money. Panthongtae said the shares were sold to him at cost. <mask> stated he had a written agreement proving the transfer to his son. Prior to the transfer, Panthongtae had signed an agreement with his father to settle a 4.5 billion baht debt from buying 300 million shares of the Thai Military Bank (TMB). However, the actual market value of the TMB shares at that time was only 1.5 billion baht. This showed a "fake debt" of 3 billion baht had been created.The Assets Examination Committee (AEC) discovered that the account of Panthongtae's which had received Shin Corporation's dividend had also been used to transfer money to Potjaman's account, to the amount of 1.1 billion baht. Pintongtha was also accused of being a nominee for her parents. She said that the money from her mother was a "birthday present". This birthday present was used to buy 367 million shares of Shin Corporation, which left her brother with the same amount. The AEC found the account had been receiving dividends from Shin Corp. There were no transactions between Pintongtha's account and her mother's account. However, the dividend money was used to buy SC Asset shares from WinMark to the amount of 71 million baht and shares from 5 real-estate firms from 2 funds in 2004 worth 485 million baht.DSI, AEC, and Securities and Exchange Commission discovered that both WinMark and the two funds are owned by Thaksin and his former wife. Ancestry

Honours, decorations and awards

National honours
The list of national honours received by <mask> Shinawatra has been arranged as per the Thai honours order of precedence. directors and chairmen
<mask> Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Montenegrin businesspeople
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
People from Huntsville, Texas
Political scandals
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
The Carlyle Group

masks: Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin Thaksin


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Sir <mask> (died 4 February 1593) was a prominent lawyer, politician, and landowner of the Tudor period. He was returned six times as a member of the English parliament for four different constituencies. He was Attorney-General for more than twenty years during the reign of Elizabeth I, as well as vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and later served as Master of the Rolls. He acquired large estates, mainly in Lancashire and Staffordshire. Background
<mask> was born by 1523. He was the son of <mask> of Astley and Ince, Lancashire, who was descended from the <mask>s of Bryn, Ashton in Makerfield, Lancashire, and Kingsley, Cheshire. The <mask> family had lived at Ince, near Wigan, since the late 14th century.However, James was probably a younger son, so it was not expected that he or <mask> would inherit the family estates. The <mask> family became wealthy and distinguished in the reign of Elizabeth I, although Sir <mask> was the most successful of them. Owing to repeated use of the same names in the <mask> family, Sir <mask>'s relatives are easily confused. Sir <mask> was a cousin of the distinguished judge and administrator Sir <mask>, who ended his career as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. However, he also had a younger brother called William, who served as MP for Preston and Wigan and died in 1584, and a nephew William by that brother, who also served as MP for Wigan and died in 1609. Still more confusing, Sir William, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland had a son called <mask>, who served as MP for Chester in 1593. <mask>'s mother was Margaret Holcroft, daughter of John Holcroft of Holcroft, Lancashire.The Holcrofts were another rising landed gentry family. Margaret had two brothers: Sir John Holcroft and Sir Thomas Holcroft. Both distinguished themselves in the Anglo-Scottish Wars, served as MP for Lancashire, and profited from speculation in monastic lands at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, although it was Sir Thomas, the younger brother, who had the more successful and varied career, building up a substantial estate around the estates of the former Vale Royal Abbey. Sir John, heir to the family estates, speculated in wardships, and it was through one of these that <mask>'s marriage was arranged, to Anne Radcliffe or Ratcliffe. Sir John addressed <mask> as "cousin", a term also used for their relationship by the History of Parliament. "Cousin" was used in the 16th century more widely for blood relatives than in modern English: Sir John and Sir Thomas were <mask>'s uncles. Education
<mask> spent some time at the University of Cambridge but did not graduate, as was typical at the time.He entered Gray's Inn in 1537, when he was probably still about 16, and was called to the bar in 1539. He seems to have been an outstanding student and was honoured by the Inn several times in later life. In 1554 he was elected Autumn Reader, an important post with both academic and administrative responsibilities, and in 1556 he served as Treasurer. Allegiance to Gray's Inn became a family tradition and it served as a power base for the family. <mask> installed himself in a room there and was generally styled "of Gray's Inn". His nephew William later moved into the room too and added an office above it for his own use, and Thomas Holcroft, Sir Thomas's son, was also admitted to Gray's Inn in 1588. Parliamentary career
<mask>'s parliamentary career was interwoven with his progress as a lawyer.He was returned to parliament a total of six times, four of them in the reign of Mary. <mask> was first returned as MP in 1545 for Liverpool. The town belonged to the Duchy of Lancaster, and the most important local magnates were the Earls of Derby and the Molyneux family. 1545 may have been the first year Liverpool had returned members for about a century - certainly the first for which records survive. By the early years of Elizabeth's reign, the Earls of Derby and the Duchy of Lancashire were effectively selecting one member each, although it was the mayor and burgesses or freemen who nominally elected the members. Even in 1545, it is likely that Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby was a decisive influence in handing a seat to <mask>. The two probably already knew each other: <mask> was the earl's legal counsel by 1562 - perhaps much earlier.Another influential supporter would have been <mask>'s uncle, Sir Thomas Holcroft, who was an official of the Duchy of Lancaster and held the Liverpool fee-farm of the Duchy: he was returned as MP for Lancashire in the same parliament. <mask> was returned as junior to the other member, Nicholas Cutler, a client of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The influence of the Molyneux family grew subsequently and Sir William Molyneux and his son acquired joint control of the Liverpool fee-farm later in 1545, often coming into confrontation with Derby and the civic officials. This may have played a part in <mask>'s move to a safer seat in later elections. <mask> was elected as MP for Wigan in March and October 1553: the last parliament of Edward VI and the first of Mary's reign. The lord of the manor of Wigan was the rector, and members of the <mask> family had purchased the advowson, making them extremely influential in local government, which was divided between the rector and the civic officials of the borough. As Wigan was part of the Duchy and the County palatine of Lancaster, duchy officials had considerable influence.The Earl of Derby was also an important figure locally. The senior MP in 1547 and for the next five elections was Alexander Barlow, a member of the Earl's council and soon to be his brother-in-law. All this favoured <mask>, although it is likely his own relatives were his most decisive allies: the High Sheriff of Lancashire, the returning officer, in 1553 was Sir <mask>, a cousin. In April 1554 <mask> was returned as MP for Steyning, Sussex. Steyning had belonged to Syon Abbey until the Dissolution of the monasteries but now formed part of the royal honour of Petworth. As steward of the honour, the decisive voice in selecting the members belonged to Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, a religious conservative who had supported the Somerset faction under Edward VI and was now a key supporter of Queen Mary and Lord Steward of her household. Significantly, he was happy to support <mask>.Sir Thomas Holcroft, <mask>'s uncle was returned for the neighbouring constituency of Arundel, where almost all the members in the 16th century were nominated by the earls. However, for the 1555 election <mask> returned to Wigan, again being returned as junior to Barlow. <mask> seems to have done little as a member of parliament. His name does not appear in the records, even though, as a rising lawyer, he would have been useful in drafting and reviewing bills. It is clear, however, that he broadly supported Mary's regime. If he had not, his name would appear on either the list of those who "stood for the true religion" in 1553–4, or among those who supported Sir Anthony Kingston in the 1555 parliament, or on the list of government opponents kept by William More. Despite his reputation as a staunch Protestant supporter of Elizabeth, <mask> appears in fact to have been essentially conservative, accepting the existing regime irrespective of religious policy.Elizabeth probably promoted him because of his proven competence as an advocate, not his ideological purity. Only once more did <mask> secure election to parliament, and that much later in life. On 18 November 1584 he was returned as member for Lancashire. As the county seats were dominated by the Duchy of Lancaster and the Earls of Derby, <mask> would have had a good chance in Lancashire at any time. However, he was by now vice-chancellor of the Duchy, so the result was not in question. He was returned as senior knight of the shire, together with Richard Molyneux. As he was already Master of the Rolls, he was required to attend the House of Lords, although not a peer.Consequently, he was unable to sit in the House of Commons. In January of the following year he was replaced as MP by Richard Bold, a powerful local landowner whose wife was a known recusant and who had recently been reported to Burghley as a recusant himself. Legal career

Barrister
Information about <mask>'s career before the accession of Elizabeth I is scanty and not always reliable. He was made an Ancient - a barrister qualified to practise independently - in 1547. The first mention of him as an advocate is in Edmund Plowden's Commentaries, relating to Michaelmas term 1554. According to a tradition found in William Dugdale's Baronage of England, <mask> represented Elizabeth when she was examined by the Privy Council:
"In the time of Queen Mary (as by credible tradition I have heard) upon the Lady Elizabeth's being questioned at the Council table, he was permitted to plead there on her behalf and performed his part so well that he suffered for the same in the Tower of London during the remaining term of Queen Mary's reign." However, this is certainly not entirely true.<mask> cannot have spent much, if any time in prison, as he was appointed permanent counsel by the City of London in October 1554, and represented Wigan in the English parliament for the third time in 1555. Nor can he have incurred the wrath of Mary, as he was made a Serjeant-at-law, one of a small and extremely powerful group of barristers with exclusive rights to work in the Court of Common Pleas towards the end of her reign - an appointment that lapsed on her death. He was made Justice of the Peace in five counties by 1559, many of them probably in Mary's reign: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire and Huntingdonshire. However, it is certainly true that <mask> was much favoured by Elizabeth and one of a small group of lawyers who were quickly installed in important offices to consolidate the new regime. Attorney-General

<mask> was made Attorney-General on 22 January 1559, a week after Elizabeth's coronation, still a young man for such a senior legal post. He was early deputed to Ireland, where he helped reform the procedure of the Court of Exchequer and drew up new rules for collecting the Queen's rent. He sat as a judge on trials including that of John Hales in 1564.Much of his work was ecclesiastical and he was appointed to the Ecclesiastical Commission by 1564. In 1567 he helped Matthew Parker, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in reforming Merton College, Oxford. From 1561 he represented the University of Cambridge whenever he was not engaged as a justice, and in 1571 he was thanked by the University for his work in securing the passage of an Act of Parliament confirming its charters and privileges. <mask> was appointed to key positions in the administration or judiciary all over the country. He was made Justice of the Peace in Norfolk and Suffolk, and later in Lancashire. In 1573 he was appointed Custos Rotulorum of Middlesex, the county's senior administrative official. <mask> was actively involved in defending Elizabeth against plots and revolts.In 1570, he was a member of a commission trying participants in the Rising of the North of the previous year, sitting mainly at York and Durham. In 1571 he assisted in the interrogation and prosecution of participants in the Ridolfi plot. He devised the questions put to the Duke of Norfolk, John Lesley, the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Lumley and others. In the following year he seconded Nicholas Barham in the prosecutions of Norfolk and his secretary, Robert Higford: the only two State Trials of his term of office. With Thomas Bromley, the Solicitor General from 1569, <mask> had to settle many problems of jurisdiction. One of

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Gilbert Gerard
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William Gerard
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 the most important concerned an attempt in 1576 by Worcester and Worcestershire to shake off the authority of the Council of Wales and the Marches - a bid which <mask> and Bromley turned down. <mask> must have been disappointed that it was Bromley, about a decade younger than himself, who was appointed Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in 1579, although he was rewarded with a knighthood in that year.However, the post of Attorney General was lucrative. It allowed <mask> to acquire wardships, leases and a grant of wine free of duty, and he exercised considerable patronage. Most importantly, it gave him access to a source of wealth and power through the Duchy of Lancaster, which dominated the north-west of England and had been united with the Crown since 1399. The duchy had considerable holdings outside its natural area of influence, and <mask> began by acquiring in 1567 the stewardship of Copt Hall in the honour of Clare, Suffolk, which had been transferred to the duchy by Queen Mary. In the same year he became steward of Rochdale manor, and over the decades increased his stewardships in Clare and became bailiff of the Lancashire hundreds of West Derby and Amounderness. In 1571 he became vice-chancellor of the duchy. Along with the Chancellor, Ralph Sadler, this gave him great political influence.<mask> and Sadler both used their positions to have their sons returned as MPs for Lancaster. Master of the Rolls
<mask> was promoted in 1581 to be Master of the Rolls, the chief administrative post in the Court of Chancery and second most senior judge in the land. If the honour was not so great as the Chancellorship, the financial rewards were a great compensation. For example, in 1586 <mask> drew an income of £1,599 5s.3d. from his post, mainly from fines, writs and legal instruments. The posts of the clerks of the petty bag, the examiners and the clerks of the rolls chapel, usher, crier and doorkeeper, his three secretaries and numerous minor posts all fell within his patronage, so he was able to make considerable extra profits from the sale of offices. As Master of the Rolls, <mask> was still frequently involved in trials.He sat in the case of William Davison, who was the scapegoat for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Davison was standing in for Francis Walsingham as principal secretary to Elizabeth when the warrant for Mary's execution was signed. Elizabeth then decided to have Mary murdered secretly, but while she was wavering, Davison was present at a Privy Council meeting in Burghley's rooms when it was decided to send the warrant to Fotheringhay Castle. Subsequently, Davison alone had to face Elizabeth's wrath. He was sent to the Star Chamber for trial, where <mask> and his fellow judges sentenced him to a fine of 10,000 marks and imprisonment during the Queen's pleasure. In fact, his fine was remitted and he was released after a few months, even receiving his salary while detained. However, the case is regarded as notorious by legal historians and did not reflect well on the judges involved.While a distinguished judge, <mask> seems to have been a poor administrator. His departments became increasingly chaotic and slipshod in their work. Bromley died in 1587 and was succeeded by the still younger Christopher Hatton, who survived only until 1591. At this point the Queen and her advisors decided to reorganise the legal departments. The issue of instruments was separated off and placed under the authority of a commission of Privy Councillors. <mask> and the other judges were formed into a second commission to hear cases. The commissions then began to dispute the boundaries of their jurisdiction, while <mask>'s commission fell into internal dissension, with other judges refusing to accept his authority.The problems were compounded by his descent into illness, which led to his death on 4 February 1593. Landowner
Although not heir to any of the major groups of <mask> family estates, Sir <mask> was able to build up a large patrimony of his own. He did this mainly by seizing opportunities that came his way through his professional life or family contacts. Through his wife he acquired the Damhouse at Astley. He also had estates in Middlesex, Shropshire and Wiltshire. Another major purchase was within the family. His cousin, Sir <mask> of Bryn, was a Catholic and father of the famous Jesuit priest <mask>.He acquired considerable estates in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, including Etwall through marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of John Port (the younger). He was implicated in a plot to free Mary, Queen of Scots, from Tutbury Castle, close to Etwall. Imprisonment and fines forced him to dispose of some property and he sold to <mask> lands around Ashley, Staffordshire. <mask> built there a very large house, Gerrard's Bromley, which became the seat of his branch of the <mask>s. Marriage and family
<mask> married Ann Radcliffe or Ratcliffe. She was the daughter of Thomas Ratcliffe of Winmarleigh and of Isabel Boteler. As her father died before she reached the age of majority, she became a ward of Sir Thomas Holcroft, <mask>'s uncle.She inherited Damhouse in Astley, which was later sold by her son, Thomas. She remained a Catholic throughout her life. They had two sons:

 Thomas, <mask>'s heir, was created the first Baron <mask> of Gerrard's Bromley in 1603. Ratcliffe married Elizabeth Somerset, a wealthy heiress related to the Earls of Worcester. They had a number of children. Sir <mask> of Halsall, married Penelope, sister and coheir of Sir Edward Fitton, 2nd and last of the Fitton baronets of Gawsworth, Cheshire. They had at least three sons:
Charles (the eldest), a Cavalier general during the Civil War and a courtier after the Restoration.He was made <mask> of Brandon in 1645 and Earl of Macclesfield in 1679. <mask>, a colonel of foot who was wounded at the First Battle of Newbury (1643). Sir <mask>, killed in one of the frequent skirmishes that took place in Ludlow between Cavaliers and Roundheads. <mask>, a colonel of a Royalist regiment of foot and was appointed Governor of Worcester in December 1642. Ratcliffe, twin brother of <mask>, under whom he served as a lieutenant-colonel. He married Jennet, the illegitimate daughter of Devereux Barrett of Tenby, Pembrokeshire. They had several children:
 <mask> (died 1687), served as a Royalist captain in the Civil War, after the restoration sat as MP for Northallerton and was made Baronet of Fiskerton
 John (1632–1654) served as an ensign in the Civil War, was executed in for his part in the <mask>'s conspiracy
 Charles (born 1635)

They also had at least four daughters who survived infancy:

 Frances married Richard Molyneux of Croxteth and Sefton, an important Lancashire landowner, who became first of the Molyneux baronets.One of their sons was

 Richard Molyneux, 1st Viscount Molyneux

 Radclyffe married Sir Thomas Wingfield of Letheringham. Catherine married Richard Hoghton, a Lancashire landowner who became first of the De Hoghton baronets. Margaret married Peter Legh of Lyme Park, Cheshire, a client of the Earls of Derby who studied at Gray's Inn, probably under the auspices of <mask>. Death and burial
<mask>'s will was made on 8 January 1593 and probate was on 6 April of that year. He died on 4 February 1593, and was buried at Ashley, Staffordshire, on 6 March. The legal historian Edward Foss points out that William Dugdale reported the year of his death as 1592, and this has been repeated in some accounts. In February 1592 (New Style) <mask> was still working, and around that time was put in charge of the new commission to hear cases in Chancery.The confusion was probably the result of the difference between Old Style and New Style dates. The known details are unusually exact, as the parish register recorded the date of death, not just the burial, as was customary. In his later years, <mask> had come under suspicion for his religious beliefs. An anonymous letter of 1586 to Walsingham denounced him as "a protestant at London and a papist in Lancashire ... there is no man that so much shifteth papists from the danger of the law as he doth". His wife and two of his daughters, at least, were known Catholics. Many of his descendants, like <mask> of Hilderstone who died in Newgate Prison in 1680, were staunchly Catholic. However, this seems not to be true of his heir, Thomas, who gave specific directions to be buried without ceremony - a provision typical of radical Protestants.In the preamble to his will, <mask> himself expressed his trust in Divine grace, as "there is nothing in any of my works or deeds whereby I can or may challenge or attain unto everlasting life". These words closely echo the Protestant teaching embodied in Article 11 of the Thirty-Nine Articles: "We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings." He left plate to his sons-in-law Sir Richard Molyneux, Peter Legh and Richard Hoghton, and to an unmarried daughter, presumably Radclyffe, who was also promised £1,000 towards her wedding. His wife received all her jewels and household equipment, as well as use of his Middlesex house. <mask> was commemorated by an elaborate memorial in Ashley parish church, which grew and was modified over several generations. The main structure, built under the supervision of <mask>'s son, Thomas, portrays him and Anne, lying in splendour. She has her Talbot dog at her side, while he is in full armour, an uncharacteristic garb for him, with a finely modelled gauntlet at his side.Beneath the <mask>s is a cadaver, but, unlike the case of a normal cadaver tomb, it appears to date from an earlier period. The kneeling figure of <mask> looms over his parents at the head end, vigilant but not in prayer. A smaller kneeling and praying figure, said to be the younger son Ratcliffe, is placed at the feet of the couple. Both kneeling figures are completely free-standing and detached from the main structure, clearly added later and at the sacrifice of part of its moulded edge. The four daughters of <mask> and Anne, all of whom survived their parents, are portrayed on a separate rear panel. Two more smaller kneeling and praying female figures, free-standing and detached, are placed to the front of the main structure - possibly daughters who predeceased their parents, but more likely of a later generation. The monument is surmounted by a vast, densely decorated alabaster canopy, displaying the armorial bearings of the <mask>s and Radcliffes.The work was claimed by John Betjeman as the largest Elizabethan monument in England, and said to be executed "under the influence" of Joseph Hollemans, completed about 1612. Joseph, also known as Jasper, Hollemans was the son of Garrett Hollemans, a Dutch sculptor who fled to England in the 1580s and worked from Burton upon Trent, centre of alabaster carving in the 16th and 17th centuries. Joseph worked for clients as illustrious as the House of Cavendish and the Spencer family of Althorp. While there is no evidence that he personally carved the memorial, it is in Burton alabaster of his style and period. Notes

References

English judges
Year of birth unknown
1593 deaths
Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Lancashire
English knights
Members of Gray's Inn
Masters of the Rolls
Attorneys General for England and Wales
English MPs 1545–1547
English MPs 1553 (Edward VI)
English MPs 1553 (Mary I)
English MPs 1554
English MPs 1555
English MPs 1584–1585
16th-century English judges
16th-century English lawyers
Knights Bachelor
Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for

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Baron Gerard
Edward Gerard
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