ITD tycoon, Premchai Karnasuta, and 16 other executives and engineers charged in collapsed SAO building case

They have surrendered to the police today, denying all the charges, while the police have vowed to go after other individuals involved if evidence and testimonies from these alleged offenders are sufficient. Among those speculated in the public are officials involved in the construction project at the State Audit Office (SAO), the property’s owner

The Metropolitan Police Bureau has held a press conference today to update the arrests of 17 executives and engineers from seven companies for their roles in the construction work and the collapse of the SAO building, which had irregularly collapsed following the major earthquake on March 28 and caused 89 deaths so far.

Among those is the President of Italian-Thai Development PLC, Premchai Karnasuta, who was ever arrested and sentenced to jail for three years for poaching wildlife in West Thungyai Wildlife Sanctuary some years back. (Read: Strong evidence and witnesses defeat Premchai in a black leopard slaying case: Prosecutors)

The bureau’s Deputy Commander Pol. Maj. Gen. Noppasin Poonsawat, deputy head of the police’s investigation team, has revealed the grounds for the arrests. According to him, the police have looked into all related construction work processes: the building design, construction, and supervision.

Based on evidence collected from concerned parties and examinations with noted structural engineering experts, including those sitting on the government-appointed panel to examine the actual causes of the building collapse, Pol. Maj. Gen. Noppasin said the police have found that the design of the building breached the Building Codes and Standards in the first place. The seismic building codes and standards under the Building Code Act B.E. 2522 were first developed and put in place following the major tsunami in 2004. They are aimed at ensuring that high-rise buildings can withstand major earthquakes. 

According to Pol. Maj. Gen. Noppasin, the SAO building’s shear core or lift core was set away from the building’s centre, on the back of the building. This prompted it to have been twisted while being swayed by the forces of the earthquake as its centre lost the load balance, to the point that the core walls and pillars exploded, and the building totally collapsed in seconds. (Read: Design of collapsed under-construction SAO building “not in line” with regulation/ Govt-appointed panel focuses its probe on design of collapsed SAO building).

For the construction and supervision processes, Pol. Maj. Gen. Noppasin said the police had worked with other concerned agencies including the DSI to collect samples of concrete and steel from the site and test them since the first day, as well as asking for views from the experts. They have found that the concrete and steel used to build this building were substandard.

There was also a change in the design at the critical parts of the building, which were its lift core and core walls that acted as the skeleton of the structure. Signatures of construction consultants to approve the change of the design are found to be forged, Pol. Maj. Gen. Noppasin said.

All these, he said, have proved that those executives, architects, and engineers did not comply with their professional codes and standards following the law. Hence, they are charged with violations of Sections 227 and 238 under the Criminal Code, he said.

Section 227 states that any person, who is a professional in designing, supervising, constructing, repairing or demolishing any building or structure, fails to comply with the principles or methods for doing so in a manner that is likely to cause danger to another person, must be punished with imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine not exceeding 100,000 baht, or both. 

Section 238, meanwhile, states that if the offence under Section 226 to Section 237 results in the death of another person, the offender shall be punished with life imprisonment or imprisonment from five to 20 years and a fine from 100,000 to 400,000 baht. The section also addresses a case concerning serious injuries, saying the perpetrator shall be punished with imprisonment from one to 10 years and a fine from 20,000 to 200,000 baht.

“All these caused the building to have collapsed and people to have died. So, we gathered all the evidence and submitted it to the court to approve the arrest warrants for them accordingly,” said Pol. Maj. Gen. Noppasin.

So far, these 17 people have been divided into three main groups of alleged offenders. The first group, six of them, involves those working for the joint venture of Forum Architect and Meinhardt Thailand, the building designer. The second group, 5 of them, involves construction consultants from the joint venture of PKW. And the last group, six of them, involves executives and engineers from the ITD-CREC Joint Venture, Mr. Premchai included.

His Executive Vice President, Kriengsak Kovadhana, and Mr. Zhang Chunling, a representative of ITD’s counterpart, CREC, are also among this group of alleged offenders. They were just present at the disbursement ceremony for the first batch of the victims on April 9. (Read: First disbursements on “humanitarian grounds” for SAO building victims and families distributed by ITD-CREC/ CREC responsible for “structural engineering work” at the SAO building, DSI told/ Possible bid collusion in SAO building case taken as second “Special Case” by DSI)  

Pol. Maj. Gen. Noppasin said 15 alleged offenders, including Mr. Premchai, came to report to the police today, while the other two from the PKW group asked for a postponement of their surrenders to Monday. They have denied all the charges and will ask for bail, but the police said they will oppose their bail requests.

Pol. Maj. Gen. Noppasin said the police will gather all of their testimonies as well as further evidence from the government-appointed panel, which is looking into the actual causes of the building collapse through the run models. They will expand their investigation into other individuals who are found to be involved in this construction project.

He declined to confirm whether they are SAO officials sitting on its contract management and construction supplies acceptance committee and sub-panels, but it’s widely speculated in the public that they are a target group, as they gave endorsements to all related construction work. SAO Auditor Generals and the State Audit Commission are those at the top of the command and approval chain who gave the final say.

“If there is more evidence that connects or continues through, or is involved with any persons or officials, at the construction supplies acceptance level or at the beginning of the TOR drafting, we will ask the court to issue more arrest warrants,” he stressed.

“… We affirm here that we work straightforwardly based on the evidence we receive. If anyone committed wrongdoings, like what was said earlier, you reap what you sow, and it will happen in this lifetime. It’s the law of Karma that no one can escape from.”

The statement was earlier addressed by Auditor General Monthien Charoenpol when he was cornered by a troop of reporters who asked him about the irregularities at the building during the religious ceremony to pray for the victims at the SAO building on Tuesday. He said: “Everyone tries to jump away, but everyone, anyone, who tries to escape, cannot escape the law of Karma. Whoever does something wrong will face the consequences of their actions.”