Organization: Central Michigan University
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Fri, 20 Nov 1992 08:01:55 EST
From:         Elliott Parker <3ZLUFUR@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Subject:      TH: Sia Dong defends his action

=======================  Forwarded  Message  ===========================
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 00:35:29+0700
From: Kamol Hengkietisak <kamol@ipied.tu.ac.th>
Subject: Bangkok Post Nov 19: Sia Song defends his action

SONG Watcharasriroj, who became the centre of interest yesterday
when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges
against him for share manipulation, said he is ready to fight any
charge as he believes he has done nothing wrong.

Mr Song told Bangkok Post in an interview after the SEC lodged the
complaint against him that he will stay in the country and await
an arrest warrant against him.

Mr Song later surrendered to the police.

However, he counter-charges that the authorities' move to bring
charges against him was unfair, and will cause adverse effects to
the stock market.

He said: "They charge me of manipulating the price of Bangkok Bank
of Commerce shares and wanting to take over the bank. However, I
have said all the time that I invested in this bank's shares
because of its bright prospects in my view.

"I have never sold BBC shares since buying them. I have not made
any gains from this bank's shares. So how could they charge me
with manipulating the price?"

He denied the charge that he wanted to take over the bank.

"Since I bought this bank's shares, I have never expressed any
interest or intention of taking it over. I bought the shares
purely for the purpose of long-term investment.

"I even publicly stated that if the bank's share price was at a
level of 30 baht, it was good for investment, but if it was over
40 baht, it was too expensive. I stated it clearly and publicly.
Is this what the authorities call manipulation?"

He said he had more than 40 stocks in his portfolio, and many of
them had suffered losses.

"Why don't the authorities take this fact into account. If I am a
manipulator, why have I suffer losses? Is it my fault that I have
gained profits from stocks I have bought?"

Mr Song said he is an ordinary investor and was treated unfairly
by the authorities.

He commented that the move by the authorities would adversely
affect the stock market and small investors would panic and sell
their holdings.

The SET index yesterday plummeted rapidly after news of the move
to arrest Mr Song reached the market, sending the prime gauge
falling by almost 60 points before later rebounding to close at a
loss of some 23 points.

The Finance Ministry had ordered Krung Thai Bank to contribute
5,000 million baht to a fund set up to shore up the stock market,
and another 10,000 million baht is expected to be contributed by
stock brokers to the fund.

Mr Song alleged that it was unfair for the Finance Ministry to
order Krung Thai Bank to contribute 5,000 million baht.

"The Finance Ministry is not the only shareholder of the bank. The
bank is listed on the stock market and it has many small
shareholders. Is this fair to the small shareholders of the bank?"

He also said he had never been contacted by the SEC, although he
was ready to explain his intention of buying BBC shares to the
SEC.

"They (the authorities) should listen to me first before judging
that I did wrong."

Instead, he said, the SEC and the Finance Ministry announced they
would take legal action against manipulators.

"That caused the stock market to tumble and market capitalisation
diminished by almost 200,000 million baht. Who will take
responsibility?"
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