BANGKOK—A Thai construction tycoon has been sentenced to an additional one year in prison for bribing a park ranger in relation to a high-profile case of poaching endangered animals in a wildlife sanctuary last year.
A Bangkok court said in a statement that it sentenced Premchai Karnasuta, the president of Italian-Thai Development PLC, on Tuesday for attempting to bribe the sanctuary’s chief ranger, who had arrested him, to let him go free.
In 2016, Premchai Karnasuta and his sister Nijaporn Charanachitta’s net worth at $630 million.
Premchai Karnasuta, the construction tycoon accused of illegal poaching in a national park and caught with carcasses of animals, ignored police summons twice already – and yet one charge has already been dropped. https://t.co/8KUvkp2NDD
— Saksith Saiyasombut (@SaksithCNA) February 23, 2018
In February last year, Premchai and his company’s employees were found with guns and the carcasses of a black panther and other animals in the sanctuary where they had set up a camp to hunt animals.
Premchai was convicted on some of the charges in March and sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Premchai Karnasuta, the president of construction firm Italian-Thai Development who faces charges centred on illegal poaching in a Kanchanaburi wildlife sanctuary, appeared in Criminal Court in Bangkok on Monday on… https://t.co/qkhwpXL91S
— The Nation Thailand (@nationnews) January 21, 2019