Liquidator seizes Royal Thai Air Force plane in Munich
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Liquidator seizes Royal Thai Air Force plane in Munich
The liquidator of the former German construction company Walter Bau is in a multi-million dollar dispute with Thailand. To increase the pressure he seized a plane in spectacular action at Munich airport and a spokesman for the Augsburg auditor Werner Schneider confirmed this to Financial Times Germany.
An international arbitration court in Geneva in mid-2009 confirmed the requirement for Thailand to pay and Thailand still has not paid. Therefore, the seizure of the aircraft is being used as leverage. The liquidator had to be very discreet in action so the pilot of the plane was not warned.
Liquidator seizes Royal Thai Air Force plane in Munich | Asian Correspondent
Story in German:
Zoff mit Thailand: Augsburger Insolvenzverwalter pfändet Kronprinzen-Boeing | FTD.de
Pictures:
Rabiater Insolvenzverwalter: Und plötzlich ist der Flieger weg - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten - Wirtschaft
An international arbitration court in Geneva in mid-2009 confirmed the requirement for Thailand to pay and Thailand still has not paid. Therefore, the seizure of the aircraft is being used as leverage. The liquidator had to be very discreet in action so the pilot of the plane was not warned.
Liquidator seizes Royal Thai Air Force plane in Munich | Asian Correspondent
Story in German:
Zoff mit Thailand: Augsburger Insolvenzverwalter pfändet Kronprinzen-Boeing | FTD.de
Pictures:
Rabiater Insolvenzverwalter: Und plötzlich ist der Flieger weg - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten - Wirtschaft
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lompaseo:
In Germany, the sheriff only requires a court order enforceable in Germany to seize property belonging to the debtor.
This case is about unpaid invoices relating to a Bangkok expressway project, with work undertaken by a German construction company.
In any case, it's interesting to see that even one of the world's richest families (the Thai royal family, who spend much time and money prosecuting anyone who reports on their vast financial interests) have now been successfully targeted by a creditor.
In Germany, the sheriff only requires a court order enforceable in Germany to seize property belonging to the debtor.
This case is about unpaid invoices relating to a Bangkok expressway project, with work undertaken by a German construction company.
In any case, it's interesting to see that even one of the world's richest families (the Thai royal family, who spend much time and money prosecuting anyone who reports on their vast financial interests) have now been successfully targeted by a creditor.
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Could the US Airforce 1 be seized the same way?
The question is would the Germans have the guts to attempt that, or do they just take advantage of small countries?
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There is no sheriff in Germany. In order to seize an asset, one needs a valid court title, which means that the case has already been ruled in first level of jurisdiction. The creditor can then enquire to execute the claim and the court's marshal will then according to the court title proceed with seizure. However, in order to execute a seizure, the creditor must deposit the claim's value at court in order to cover possible costs of execution. Especially the last part is a very big barrier to proceeding claims in Germany. Since it has been ruled by the arbitrary court in Geneva, there must have occurred a pretty long run-up in order to transform the international ruling into German law. Due to the (automatic) court processes, a political influence appears rather difficult, although I would not rule it out.
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The question is would the Germans have the guts to attempt that, or do they just take advantage of small countries?
"The Germans" have in the past (unsuccessfully, because the pilots were quicker) attempted to seize Russian aircraft, so obviously are not afraid of big countries.
>(unsuccessfully, because the pilots were quicker)
Not always. I remember a Tu 154 being parked for a rather long time at a North German airport -- until a few month's landing fees were finally paid.
Not always. I remember a Tu 154 being parked for a rather long time at a North German airport -- until a few month's landing fees were finally paid.
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What would make the situation more fun is if Thailand now responded by borrowing a few Lufthansa birds.
Wikipedia says:
Royal Thai Armed Forces; 300,000 active personnel
German Military = 220,000
Wikipedia says:
Royal Thai Armed Forces; 300,000 active personnel
German Military = 220,000
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Incredible story
Just found this on Google, don't know if its true or not... If it is then there will be rough water ahead between Germany and Thailand.
The personal Boeing 737 of Thai Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn has been impounded at Munich airport by liquidators trying to recover debts owed to collapsed German construction conglomerate Walter Bau AG. The plane was seized due to a financial claim against the Thai state – and specifically the Department of Highways – and does not involve a personal debt owed by the crown prince. However, liquidators for the German firm impounded the plane on Tuesday in an aggressive move to embarrass Thailand into paying up.
The debt relates to Walter Bau’s 10 percent stake in the Don Muang Tollway Co, which built and operated the elevated highway from central Bangok to the Thai capital’s old international airport. Walter Bau went bankrupt in 2005 and liquidators trying to recover funds for the firm’s creditors pursued a claim against Thailand for changing terms of the contract to build the highway and for refusing to allow increases in the toll payable by vehicles using the road, which rendered the project unprofitable. In 2009, an international arbitration tribunal ordered Thailand to pay 29.2 million euros compensation plus 1.98 million euros in partial costs for breaching the contract: the full decision, and the tortured history of the troubled Don Muang Tollway project can be read here.; it’s an all-too-familiar saga of official incompetence and corruption. The arbitration panel found in particular that a toll reduction announced by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2004 breached the terms of the agreement with Walter Bau. When the tribunal decision was announced, then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the Thai government did not accept it, and vowed to fight it by doing what Thai politicians almost always do when faced with a problem – setting up a committee to bury the issue in interminable bureaucracy. Transport Minister Sophon Zarum accused the German company of “dirty tricks“.
With the compensation ordered by the tribunal still unpaid, Augsburg auditor Werner Schneider, who is the insolvency administrator for Walter Bau, decided to seek the seizure of the plane to use as leverage to force Thailand to come up with the money. His spokesman has confirmed the plane has been impounded; a report on the story can also be found on the Financial Times Deutschland website. The Financial Times says the seizure of the plane had to be planned carefully as the prince had flown around a variety of German airports in recent weeks including Dresden, Saarbrücken, Nuremberg and Berlin-Tegel; it adds that Vajiralongkorn recently visited a Dresden porcelain factory with an entourage of 40 people. He was not warned in advance about the seizure of the plane. the Financial Times reports.
As Eric G. John, former U.S. ambassador to Thailand , wrote in a secret diplomatic cable in November 2009, Vajiralongkorn spends most of his time in Germany:
Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn has spent most (up to 75%) of the past two years based in Europe (primarily at a villa at a medicinal spa 20km outside of Munich), with his leading mistress and beloved white poodle Fufu. Vajiralongkorn is believed to be suffering from a blood-related medical condition… His current (third) wife Srirasmi and 4 year old son… known as Ong Ti, reside in his Sukhothai Palace in Bangkok, but when Vajiralongkorn travels back to Bangkok, he stays with his second mistress in the retrofitted Air Force VIP lounge at Wing Six, Don Muang Airport (note: both mistresses are Thai Airways stewardesses; the Crown Prince has shifted from flying F5s to Thai Airways Boeings and Airbuses in recent years. End note). Long known for violent and unpredictable mood swings, the Crown Prince has few people who have stayed long in his inner circle.
The prince pilots his personal 737 in his trips between Thailand and Germany: it appears regularly on planespotter websites.
Given Vajiralongkorn’s reputation for violent rages, it is likely that Thai and German officials are scrambling to resolve the situation. The prince has a history of diplomatic disasters. In September 1987, he made a state visit to Japan. Ahead of the trip, he demanded that his then-mistress accompany him in an official capacity instead of his wife; the Japanese refused for reasons of protocol. Once he arrived, things went from bad to worse, as Barbara Crosette reported in the New York Times:
A diplomatic storm blew up between Tokyo and Bangkok over what Thai-language newspapers reported as ”slights” to the Crown Prince, a pilot and army major general who commands his own regiment, during an official visit to Japan.
A Japanese chauffeur driving the Thai Prince’s car apparently stopped at a motorway tollbooth to relieve himself – Japanese officials say the man felt ill and had to be replaced. On other occasions, the Prince was said to have been given an inappropriate chair to sit on and to have been forced to reach down to the floor to pick up a cord to unveil a memorial. The prince came home three days earlier than scheduled, leaving a diplomatic crisis in his wake.
The prince got his revenge nine years later, in 1996, as Paul Handley writes in The King Never Smiles, his pioneering academic biography of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej:
On March 1-2, Thailand hosted the leaders of Asian and European nations for an inaugural summit meeting. It was a great status-booster for Thailand, and the king put on a grand reception for visiting presidents and premiers. The prince gave Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto another kind of welcome. When Hashimoto’s Boeing 747 landed at Don Muang airport on February 28, before it reached the red carpet for disembarkation, the jet was blocked very publicly by three F-5 fighter jets led by the crown prince himself. Photographers at the arrival point were forced to put down their cameras as the prince held the Japanese delegation hostage on the tarmac for twenty minutes before breaking away. The prince was apparently avenging his alleged mistreatment on his Japan visit in 1987. As then, the Thai and Japanese governments were both hugely embarrassed, and the Japanese diplomatically let the incident stand without protest or comment.
The personal Boeing 737 of Thai Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn has been impounded at Munich airport by liquidators trying to recover debts owed to collapsed German construction conglomerate Walter Bau AG. The plane was seized due to a financial claim against the Thai state – and specifically the Department of Highways – and does not involve a personal debt owed by the crown prince. However, liquidators for the German firm impounded the plane on Tuesday in an aggressive move to embarrass Thailand into paying up.
The debt relates to Walter Bau’s 10 percent stake in the Don Muang Tollway Co, which built and operated the elevated highway from central Bangok to the Thai capital’s old international airport. Walter Bau went bankrupt in 2005 and liquidators trying to recover funds for the firm’s creditors pursued a claim against Thailand for changing terms of the contract to build the highway and for refusing to allow increases in the toll payable by vehicles using the road, which rendered the project unprofitable. In 2009, an international arbitration tribunal ordered Thailand to pay 29.2 million euros compensation plus 1.98 million euros in partial costs for breaching the contract: the full decision, and the tortured history of the troubled Don Muang Tollway project can be read here.; it’s an all-too-familiar saga of official incompetence and corruption. The arbitration panel found in particular that a toll reduction announced by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2004 breached the terms of the agreement with Walter Bau. When the tribunal decision was announced, then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the Thai government did not accept it, and vowed to fight it by doing what Thai politicians almost always do when faced with a problem – setting up a committee to bury the issue in interminable bureaucracy. Transport Minister Sophon Zarum accused the German company of “dirty tricks“.
With the compensation ordered by the tribunal still unpaid, Augsburg auditor Werner Schneider, who is the insolvency administrator for Walter Bau, decided to seek the seizure of the plane to use as leverage to force Thailand to come up with the money. His spokesman has confirmed the plane has been impounded; a report on the story can also be found on the Financial Times Deutschland website. The Financial Times says the seizure of the plane had to be planned carefully as the prince had flown around a variety of German airports in recent weeks including Dresden, Saarbrücken, Nuremberg and Berlin-Tegel; it adds that Vajiralongkorn recently visited a Dresden porcelain factory with an entourage of 40 people. He was not warned in advance about the seizure of the plane. the Financial Times reports.
As Eric G. John, former U.S. ambassador to Thailand , wrote in a secret diplomatic cable in November 2009, Vajiralongkorn spends most of his time in Germany:
Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn has spent most (up to 75%) of the past two years based in Europe (primarily at a villa at a medicinal spa 20km outside of Munich), with his leading mistress and beloved white poodle Fufu. Vajiralongkorn is believed to be suffering from a blood-related medical condition… His current (third) wife Srirasmi and 4 year old son… known as Ong Ti, reside in his Sukhothai Palace in Bangkok, but when Vajiralongkorn travels back to Bangkok, he stays with his second mistress in the retrofitted Air Force VIP lounge at Wing Six, Don Muang Airport (note: both mistresses are Thai Airways stewardesses; the Crown Prince has shifted from flying F5s to Thai Airways Boeings and Airbuses in recent years. End note). Long known for violent and unpredictable mood swings, the Crown Prince has few people who have stayed long in his inner circle.
The prince pilots his personal 737 in his trips between Thailand and Germany: it appears regularly on planespotter websites.
Given Vajiralongkorn’s reputation for violent rages, it is likely that Thai and German officials are scrambling to resolve the situation. The prince has a history of diplomatic disasters. In September 1987, he made a state visit to Japan. Ahead of the trip, he demanded that his then-mistress accompany him in an official capacity instead of his wife; the Japanese refused for reasons of protocol. Once he arrived, things went from bad to worse, as Barbara Crosette reported in the New York Times:
A diplomatic storm blew up between Tokyo and Bangkok over what Thai-language newspapers reported as ”slights” to the Crown Prince, a pilot and army major general who commands his own regiment, during an official visit to Japan.
A Japanese chauffeur driving the Thai Prince’s car apparently stopped at a motorway tollbooth to relieve himself – Japanese officials say the man felt ill and had to be replaced. On other occasions, the Prince was said to have been given an inappropriate chair to sit on and to have been forced to reach down to the floor to pick up a cord to unveil a memorial. The prince came home three days earlier than scheduled, leaving a diplomatic crisis in his wake.
The prince got his revenge nine years later, in 1996, as Paul Handley writes in The King Never Smiles, his pioneering academic biography of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej:
On March 1-2, Thailand hosted the leaders of Asian and European nations for an inaugural summit meeting. It was a great status-booster for Thailand, and the king put on a grand reception for visiting presidents and premiers. The prince gave Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto another kind of welcome. When Hashimoto’s Boeing 747 landed at Don Muang airport on February 28, before it reached the red carpet for disembarkation, the jet was blocked very publicly by three F-5 fighter jets led by the crown prince himself. Photographers at the arrival point were forced to put down their cameras as the prince held the Japanese delegation hostage on the tarmac for twenty minutes before breaking away. The prince was apparently avenging his alleged mistreatment on his Japan visit in 1987. As then, the Thai and Japanese governments were both hugely embarrassed, and the Japanese diplomatically let the incident stand without protest or comment.
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@ross_M:
Bit of a long march from Bangkok.
Anyway, the whole thing is probably more of a stunt to shame the Thais into paying up. The plane, according to Flight International, has a current value of around 6M€, a fraction of the sum being sought.
@surplus1: Try it at your own risk.
Royal Thai Armed Forces; 300,000 active personnel
Anyway, the whole thing is probably more of a stunt to shame the Thais into paying up. The plane, according to Flight International, has a current value of around 6M€, a fraction of the sum being sought.
@surplus1: Try it at your own risk.
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Surplus1 - Why do you think the US is any different to any other country - oh sorry it is the United States silly me - trouble is you think you can do what you like - not any more chum!
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Lomapaseo, Air Force 1 (VC-25), I guess in theory could be seized that way, but since it is paid for, I don´t think it is an issue. Also, the USAF VC-25s are protected by armed security when parked abroad, so an aircraft repo guy may be risking his life.
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Strange
As I understand it assets belonging to the Royal family is not considered to be public so on what grounds is the German court holding personal assets?
Repurcussions on Germany? Maybe they forget that aircraft bought from EU for commercial purposes provides much more benefit to the EU than a few million Euros in debt. So if there should be an order to halt orders of Airbus aircraft>>>well, let Airbus deal with that....
BTW, the lettering on the side of the aircraft clearly states who the aircraft belongs to and no where does it say Royal Air Force. Maybe someone mis-read the lettering.
UMMMMM I sure hope that the German people will one day also rise up to their government to ask what has happened to their tax money dumped into Greece and other European nations so where's the claim to the inevitable hair cut on the amount of debt given to these countries?
Repurcussions on Germany? Maybe they forget that aircraft bought from EU for commercial purposes provides much more benefit to the EU than a few million Euros in debt. So if there should be an order to halt orders of Airbus aircraft>>>well, let Airbus deal with that....
BTW, the lettering on the side of the aircraft clearly states who the aircraft belongs to and no where does it say Royal Air Force. Maybe someone mis-read the lettering.
UMMMMM I sure hope that the German people will one day also rise up to their government to ask what has happened to their tax money dumped into Greece and other European nations so where's the claim to the inevitable hair cut on the amount of debt given to these countries?
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I sure hope that the German people will one day also rise up to their government to ask what has happened to their tax money dumped into Greece and other European nations so where's the claim to the inevitable hair cut on the amount of debt given to these countries?
A company, or what's left over, wants its money.
That's it.
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Surplus1 - Why do you think the US is any different to any other country - oh sorry it is the United States silly me - trouble is you think you can do what you like - not any more chum!
I say again, I do not think any component of German authorities would have the guts to attempt to seize Air Force One, or even Hillary Clinton's official aircraft. Likewise, I do not think they would have the guts to attempt to seize Vladirmir Putin's official aircraft, or Prince Charles' official aircraft, or Hu Jintao's official aircraft, or Sarkozy's official aircraft, as examples, because any one of those countries owed money to a German construction firm.
The aircraft in question apparently belongs to the Crown Prince of Thailand. That is quite different from other Thai-owned aircraft. It's a diplomatic faux pas of the first order and warrants an official apology from the German Chancellor, IMO.
No, I do not think that the US can "do what it likes", and I never have. I also do not think that Germany can do what it likes.
Use your head, sir. Y calmase, vos.
Last edited by surplus1; 13th Jul 2011 at 18:58.