Bangkok: Court grants bail to Chuanling Zhang, director of China Railway Co., Ltd., in the case of the State Audit Office building collapse, with a 500,000 baht surety and a ban on leaving the country. After Chuanling Zhang, the director of China Railway Co., Ltd., the defendant, filed a petition with a bail of 500,000 baht, the court considered the investigation and granted temporary release, with the condition that he not travel abroad without permission from the court and must report himself as scheduled.
According to Thai News Agency, the Department of Special Investigation has received a case of a joint venture bidding for a construction project for the Office of the Auditor General of Thailand. This project may have engaged in behavior that falls under the offenses of the Foreign Business Act of 1999 and may have engaged in corruption in government agency procurement, which may fall under the offenses of the Act on Offenses Relating to Bidding to Government Agencies of 1999, as Special Case No. 32/2568.
Following the collapse of the new Office of the Auditor General building, which resulted in numerous injuries and deaths, the investigation found that the company constructing the building was a joint venture between Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited (ITD) and China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Co., Ltd. under the name ITD-CREC. China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Co., Ltd. was registered on August 10, 2018, with a registered capital of 100 million baht, 1 million shares at a price of 100 baht per share, with 51 percent Thai ownership and 49 percent Chinese ownership.
The investigation revealed the shareholders of China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Co., Ltd. are China Railway Number 10 Engineering Company, Mr. Sophone, Mr. Prachuap, and Mr. Manas. The company has Mr. Chuanling Zhang, a Chinese national, and Mr. Sophone as directors with authority to act on behalf of a juristic person. Investigations into these individuals revealed their ties to other businesses and past employment histories, raising questions about their roles in the company.
The investigation found that Mr. Sophon, Mr. Prachuap, and Mr. Manas were employees of a company owned by Chinese nationals. They were only cargo lifters and drivers, and it is not believed that they were genuine shareholders. Special case investigators are currently tracking down these Thai directors to investigate the case of the building collapse on March 28, 2025.
In this case, Mr. Chuanling Zhang, accused of being engaged in prohibited businesses under the Foreign Business Act, is alleged to have used Thai employees to register as shareholders to disguise the company as a Thai entity. This was done to bid for the construction of the new Office of the Auditor General building through electronic bidding, which commenced in 2020 until the building's collapse.
These actions are considered offenses under the Alien Business Act of 1999, as Mr. Chuanling Zhang is accused of being an alien engaged in a prohibited business and being complicit in such offenses.