Sondhi Limthongkul is a Thai media mogul, reactionary activist, demagogue, and leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy.
79 Facts About Sondhi Limthongkul
2.
Sondhi Limthongkul was elected leader of the New Politics Party.
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Sondhi Limthongkul is more or less a supporter of the Democrat Party and stopped the PAD's protests after Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was appointed Prime Minister.
4.
Sondhi Limthongkul suffered a serious head wound but remained conscious, standing and lucid before being sent to a hospital for emergency surgery.
5.
Sondhi Limthongkul survived the surgery, which involved removing several bullet fragments embedded about half a centimetre deep in his skull.
6.
Sondhi Limthongkul was found guilty of violating the Securities and Exchange Act by falsifying documents in 1997 to secure a loan from Krung Thai Bank amounting to 1.08 billion baht.
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Sondhi Limthongkul was released from jail early on 4 September 2019 on royal pardon.
8.
Sondhi Limthongkul founded Manager Daily in 1982 after several ventures in publishing.
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Sondhi Limthongkul's business faced a meltdown following the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, forcing him into bankruptcy and sparking investigations into irregular inter-company transactions.
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Immediately after the crisis, Sondhi Limthongkul furiously attacked the Democrat-led government over its management of the economic recovery.
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Sondhi Limthongkul then began criticizing Thaksin using the media under his control, including satellite broadcaster ASTV.
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Sondhi Limthongkul founded the People's Alliance for Democracy, aimed at overthrowing the Thaksin government.
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Closely affiliated with Queen Sirikit and prominent royalists, Sondhi Limthongkul regularly invoked king Bhumibol Adulyadej in his protests, and has claimed that his enemies are disloyal to the monarchy, aiming at destroying the country's political form.
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Sondhi Limthongkul has openly called for the military and Thailand's traditional elite to take a greater role in politics.
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Sondhi Limthongkul was born in Sukhothai Province to a Thai Chinese family with ancestry from Hainan.
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Sondhi Limthongkul's paternal grandfather was born in Hainan before settling in Sukhothai and marrying a Thai woman.
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Sondhi Limthongkul's Thai-born father was sent to study in China and eventually became a Kuomintang army officer after training at Whampoa Military Academy; he later returned to Thailand during the Chinese Communist Revolution and married a Hainan-born woman who was Sondhi Limthongkul's mother.
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Sondhi Limthongkul majored in history at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a reporter for the student newspaper, The Daily Bruin, from 1966 to 1969.
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Sondhi Limthongkul wrote several exposes of the political developments that led to the student protests and bloodshed on October 14,1973, an event which brought down the military government of Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn and led to a restoration of democracy.
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In 1979, Sondhi Limthongkul set up his own company, Karawek, which published a women's magazine, Pooying, from 1980 to 1982.
21.
In 1982, Sondhi Limthongkul established the business monthly Phoojatkarn, which he produced in a room in his father's house.
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Phoojatkarn Monthly was a success, and four years later Sondhi Limthongkul began a weekly with the same name.
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Sondhi Limthongkul later published a daily newspaper, Phoojadkarn Rai Wan.
24.
Sondhi Limthongkul eventually established a publishing house called the Manager Group, as a holding company for his media outlets.
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Sondhi Limthongkul briefly owned a local lifestyle magazine in Los Angeles known as Buzz.
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Sondhi Limthongkul was characterized in the media as an "Asian Rupert Murdoch," and he hired aggressively, bringing in both Asian and Western journalists.
27.
Sondhi Limthongkul said Thaksin made between THB 600 million to THB 700 million from the IEC float.
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Sondhi Limthongkul wrote in his book, "One Must Know How To Lose Before Knowing How To Win", that he felt that Thaksin was a free rider and did not want to do business with him.
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Sondhi Limthongkul owned a hotel in China's Yunnan province, ran a cement factory in Vietnam, and set up a regional business conference company.
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Sondhi Limthongkul himself kept few direct holdings in any of the companies, but was ultimately in control through his ownership of holding companies like M Group and other holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
31.
Sondhi Limthongkul received an honorary doctorate from Chiang Mai University.
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Sondhi Limthongkul often travelled around Thailand in a chartered personal business jet from Thai Airways and was often seen escorting Chinese movie star Gong Li.
33.
Sondhi Limthongkul's WCS was sold to the CP Group before it was renamed TA Orange and later became True Move.
34.
Auditors of Eastern Printing, Sondhi Limthongkul's SET-listed printing company, noted that its huge losses partially stemmed from loans to associated companies and the establishment of off-balance accounts to related publishing companies.
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For example, in its 2000 financial statement, Sondhi Limthongkul-linked companies Asia Inc and FRYE Smith Co owed Bt59.86 million and Bt125.79 million respectively to Eastern Printing.
36.
Pansak Vinyaratan, previously editor of the now defunct Sondhi Limthongkul-owned Asia Times, became Thaksin's chief policy adviser.
37.
Chai-anan Samudavanija, who chaired IEC and was head of several of Sondhi Limthongkul's foundations, won prominent jobs at state-owned Krung Thai Bank and Thai Airways International.
38.
Kanok Abhiradee, the head of one of Sondhi Limthongkul's companies, became president of Thai Airways.
39.
In July 2003, Sondhi Limthongkul wrote in his newspaper predicting the US Dollar's failure in 2010 and at the same time suggested Thai people invest in gold.
40.
Sondhi Limthongkul began criticizing Thaksin's government on the conflict of interest on the national petroleum company.
41.
However, Sondhi Limthongkul felt he was dropped for criticising the Thaksin government.
42.
Sondhi Limthongkul subsequently started broadcasting his talk show via satellite and webcasting it on the website of one of his newspapers, doubling his daily number of site visitors.
43.
Thaksin was immediately attacked by Sondhi Limthongkul and accused of gagging the press.
44.
Thaksin's legal team noted that other newspapers only published selected passages of the sermon, and furthermore, Sondhi Limthongkul had used an allegedly slanderous headline.
45.
Sondhi Limthongkul said the lawsuits "do not constitute an attack on freedom of the press".
46.
On 17 November 2005, the Civil Court issued a gag order on Sondhi Limthongkul to prevent him from making further "royal powers" allegations.
47.
Sondhi Limthongkul was investigated on two counts of lese-majesty against King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
48.
However, Sondhi Limthongkul continues to use "We Will Fight for the King" and "Return Power to the King" as rallying cries in his anti-Thaksin protests.
49.
Sondhi Limthongkul hosted an own outdoor talk show throughout late 2005 and early 2006 at Thammasat University and in Lumphini Park with his slogan, "We Fight for the King".
50.
Protests led by Sondhi Limthongkul took on an increasingly critical tone.
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Sondhi Limthongkul was harshly criticized for attempting to use the King for his own benefit.
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Nevertheless, Sondhi Limthongkul's income skyrocketed as a result of his political activism as the demonstration gained wider support from public.
53.
On his talk show the following day, Sondhi Limthongkul claimed that Thaksin Shinawatra had masterminded the destruction in order to replace the image of Brahma with a "dark force" aligned to Thaksin.
54.
Sondhi Limthongkul claimed Thaksin had hired Thanakorn through Khmer black-magic shamans.
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Sondhi Limthongkul countered by saying that Thaksin was trying to silence the press.
56.
Sondhi Limthongkul's protest was cancelled, and the PAD later disbanded itself, claiming it was no longer needed.
57.
Sondhi Limthongkul supported the coup, and later went on an international tour through London, Washington DC, and New York to celebrate with the PAD's expatriate supporters.
58.
Sondhi Limthongkul later announced that his political focus would be on educating the Thai public on how badly the Thaksin government had run the country.
59.
Sondhi Limthongkul announced that he would end all of his public roles within five years.
60.
Sondhi Limthongkul took a critical stance against the junta when it appointed a few cabinet members who had previously served as civil servants under the Thaksin government.
61.
The court has stated that by accusing a whole family, Sondhi Limthongkul could not be charged, which was an example of Thailand's bizarre legal system.
62.
However, after critics and pressure, Sondhi Limthongkul cancelled his airing program.
63.
The Office of His Majesty's Principal Private Secretary said in a public statement that Arsa had "has no connections whatsoever" with the issue, and that Sondhi Limthongkul made "incorrect allegations" against the royal secretary.
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Sondhi Limthongkul issued an apology a few days later, but publicly warned Arsa that he had no right to use the office of the King's Principal Private Secretary to defend himself in a personal matter.
65.
Sondhi Limthongkul then accused the King's Principal Private Secretary of speaking with the Attorney General and the Police Commander in order to get charges of lese majeste against Thaksin Shinawatra dropped.
66.
Sondhi Limthongkul was reported to have been the target of an assassination attempt on the morning of 17 April 2009.
67.
Gunmen firing M-16 and AK-47 rifles shot out his tires at a petrol station in Bangkok and sprayed over 100 bullets into Sondhi Limthongkul's car, wounding Sondhi Limthongkul and seriously wounding his driver.
68.
Sondhi Limthongkul suffered one wound to the head but was conscious, standing, and lucid before being sent to the hospital for surgery.
69.
Sondhi Limthongkul survived the surgery and was visited by relatives afterwards.
70.
When questioned about the shooting, Sondhi Limthongkul said that he had "revealed the secrets of a lady who appears close to King Bhumibol".
71.
Sondhi Limthongkul did not specify who he was referring to.
72.
Sondhi Limthongkul claimed that sources had told him that four of the gunmen had already been "silenced" as of 3 May 2009.
73.
Sondhi Limthongkul has placed all rival political parties on notice following his election as the new leader of the New Politics Party and elected the party's 25 executives, by about 2,300 out of some 8,900 members of the party gathered at the Thunderdome stadium at Muang Thong Thani.
74.
Lastly, Sondhi Limthongkul claimed that they are not looking to challenge other political parties.
75.
On 28 February 2012, Sondhi Limthongkul was convicted by a Bangkok Criminal Court of violating the Securities and Exchange Act by falsifying documents to secure a multimillion-dollar loan for his media empire, a case dating back to the 1990s.
76.
Sondhi Limthongkul pleaded guilty but was freed on bail pending an appeal against the sentence.
77.
Sondhi Limthongkul was released from jail early on 4 September 2019 on royal pardon.
78.
On 1 October 2013, Sondhi Limthongkul was declared guilty of lese majeste for quoting remarks made by an opponent protesting the 2008 resumption of PAD protests.
79.
The lese majeste had resulted from Sondhi Limthongkul's having quoted remarks made Daranee Chanchoengsilpakul.