Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra declared more than $400 million in assets on Friday, her party said, including more than 200 designer handbags worth over $2 million and at least 75 luxury watches valued at almost $5 million.
Paetongtarn, the youngest daughter of telecom billionaire and ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, took office in September as the fourth member of the clan to lead a Thai government in 20 years. Paetongtarn, now 38, also became Thailand’s youngest leader at age 37 when she took office.
Paetongtarn was obliged to declare her assets and liabilities to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
She identified 13.8 billion baht ($400 million) in assets, a document posted on media websites showed.
Her investments were worth 11 billion baht and she had another billion baht in deposits and cash, her declaration said.
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Her other assets included 75 watches valued at 162 million baht and 39 more timepieces, plus 217 handbags worth 76 million baht, as well as property in London and Japan among other holdings.
She also declared liabilities of nearly five billion baht, according to the NACC document posted by local media, giving her a net worth of 8.9 billion baht ($258 million).
A representative from the Pheu Thai Party confirmed to AFP that the figures reported by Thai media were accurate.
Her father and predecessor Thaksin — who once owned Manchester City football club — has a net worth of $2.1 billion, according to Forbes, making him the 10th-richest person in Thailand.
Thaksin used the wealth generated by his Shin Corp telecommunications empire to propel him into politics, and his family has remained influential even during his years in exile following his ousting in a coup. Last year, Thaksin was freed from a police hospital, where he had been serving a one-year jail sentence for corruption and abuse of power, the BBC reported.
The telecommunications billionaire was the first prime minister in Thailand’s history to lead an elected government through a full term in office, according to the BBC.
Analysts say there is a longstanding connection between wealth and power in the kingdom.
“In a nation without a fully functioning democracy, money plays a crucial role in political activities,” Yuttaporn Issarachai of Sukhothai Thammathirat University told AFP.
“This has often been the justification for military interventions, with claims of a lack of transparency.”
Paetongtarn’s immediate predecessor as premier, Srettha Thavisin, declared assets of 985 million baht when he was dismissed by Thailand’s constitutional court in August — down from 1.02 billion baht at the start of his term. The BBC reported that the court ruled that Srettha had violated the “rules on ethics” with “the display of defiant behavior.”
