Financier from Thailand’s boom years goes on trial

Bangkok – A former financier who spent 13 years in Canada fighting extradition to Thailand went on trial Tuesday for violating security exchange regulations.

Rakesh Saxena, 57, arrived at Bangkok’s Southern District Court in a wheelchair to hear prosecution witnesses give evidence that he violated Security Exchange Commission (SEC) laws by blocking access to financial data of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BBC), a listed company that collapsed in 1996.

Saxena, a Thai national of Indian descent, has asked to examine the witnesses himself, a process that would require an interpreter due to his limited Thai-language skills, one of the court’s three judges said.

Monsters and Critics