Thaksin may lose $2.2 billion

Thai prosecutors asked the Supreme Court yesterday to seize former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's 76 billion baht ($2.2 billion) in assets frozen in Thai banks after he was ousted in a 2006 coup.

In 300,000 pages of documents presented to a nine-judge panel, prosecutors argued Thaksin had abused his powers during 5 years in office to enrich his associates and businesses owned by his family.

"The prosecutors are presenting evidence to ask the court to take away his unusual wealth and put it in state coffers," chief prosecutor Seksan Bangsomboon told reporters.