32 2GM Tuesday July 28 2020 | the times
Wo r l d
Thailand’s prime minister has ordered
an investigation into why charges
against the heir to the Red Bull fortune
over the death of a police officer were
dropped.
Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered police
and prosecutors to review the decision
to drop warrants for the arrest of
Vorayuth Yoovidhya, 35, who repeated-
ly failed to appear for questioning after
a policeman was killed in a hit-and-run
accident in 2012.
News that the charges against Mr
Vorayuth had been dropped provoked
fury on social media last week and
prompted calls for a boycott of Red Bull,
the energy drink co-founded by his
When the 16th-century Château de Pic
in Bordeaux was bought by a Chinese
tea magnate for €4 million in 2012, lo-
cals anticipated a new era of prosperity.
Since the vineyard was sold again last
year, to another Chinese investor, their
enthusiasm has waned. The vines are
withering, the gardens are overgrown
and the estate’s six employees say the
bank balance is so low they cannot fuel
the tractor. They went without pay for
four months before an employment tri-
bunal ruled in their favour in June.
The French channel CNews has
reported that a third of the 150 or so
châteaux bought in recent decades by
Asian investors, most of them Chinese,
have been left to fall into ruin, although
Red Bull scion
facing fresh
questions over
fatal hit and run
The controversy comes at a time of
protests against the government of Mr
Prayuth, a former general who seized
power in a coup and was then elected
last year under a system regarded by his
opponents as rigged.
Some have carried banners calling
for the overthrow of the Thai king; an
unprecedented display of boldness in a
country that imprisons peaceful critics
of the monarchy.
One supporter of Mr Prayuth, Sena-
tor Wanchai Sornsiri, warned that the
Vorayuth case could “explode at the
same time that student protests are es-
calating”. He wrote on Facebook: “It is
the last straw and the fire has been lit.”
Mr Vorayuth was accused of driving
his black Ferrari into the motorbike
driven by Police Sergeant Major
Wichian Klanprasert, 47, in the early
hours of September 3, 2012. The officer
was dragged behind the car for more
than 100 metres along Sukhumvit road
in central Bangkok before it sped away.
Mr Vorayuth first claimed that the
car had been driven by a housekeeper
but later admitted that it was him. It was
not until 2017 that he was charged with
speeding, causing death by reckless
driving and failing to help his victim.
His posts on social media suggest
that for much of the time since the trag-
edy Mr Vorayuth has been living a life
of luxury in Europe and Japan, prompt-
ing claims that wealthy criminal sus-
pects can get away with crimes for
which the less affluent are prosecuted.
The two less serious charges were
dropped when the statute of limitations
expired. The most serious charge, of
causing death by reckless driving,
would have been valid until 2027 but
was dropped last week, allegedly after
new witnesses emerged saying that
Sergeant Wichian had cut in front of
Mr Vorayuth’s car and that the Red Bull
heir had not been speeding.
“Mr Vorayuth Yoovidhya has never
assumed any role in the management
and daily operations of TCP Group, was
never a shareholder, nor has he held
any executive position within TCP
Group,” the company that owns the
Red Bull brand said in a statement.Welcome home Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, and his wife, Mareva Grabowski, with Tom Hanks and his wife,
Rita Wilson, who were given Greek passports as thanks after the actors helped victims of deadly fires near Athens in 2018Enough sexist rubbish, says MP in bin bag
What do you do when you’re a female
politician and want to make a point
about men judging you on your appear-
ance rather than your policies?
For one Australian MP, who said she
was sick of “sexist garbage”, the solution
was to wear a bin bag. Nicolle Flint, a
member of the governing Liberal Party,
revealed the outfit in a Twitter video.
For her, the last straw was an article
in Adelaide’s The Advertiser that sin-
gled out her fondness for tight trousers
and bright jackets.
“I’ve put up with a lot as a woman inwant to know is, what should a woman
in politics wear? How about a garbage
bag, to match your rubbish views?”
She added: “It’s time women in public
life are judged on what they stand for,
not what they look like.”
Her post drew praise on social
media and from women across
the aisle, including the Labor MP
Anika Wells, who tweeted: “I’m
with Nicolle Flint.”
Julia Gillard, 58, Australia’s first
female prime minister, who took
office in 2010, faced years of criti-
cism about her clothes, hairstyle,
tone of voice and her decision to
not have children.Australia
Bernard Lagan Sydney
Thailand
Richard Lloyd Parry Asia Editor
politics,” Ms Flint, 42, told view-
ers. “Police charged a creepy old
man with stalking me. My cam-
paign office was vandalised, call-
ing me a prostitute.”
She said the article, by the
broadcaster and writer Peter
Goers, condemned her for
wearing stiletto heels, “tight
pants that show [her] an-
kles”, and coloured jackets.
Removing her coat to re-
veal the bin bag, Ms Flint
said: “So, Mr Goers, what INicolle Flint: “I’ve put up
with a lot in politics”GREEK PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE/APgrandfather. Red Bull responded with a
statement saying that Mr Vorayuth,
known by his nickname “Boss”, had
nothing to do with the management of
the company.
Critics claim that the reason why the
eight-year investigation into Mr
Vorayuth never made any progress was
because of the influence his fortune al-
lowed him to wield. Some point to a re-
ported 300 million baht (£7.4 million)
donation from the Yoovidhya family to
the government to help in the struggle
against the coronavirus as an example.
Vorayuth
Yoovidhya said his
housekeeper was
driving but later
admitted he was
at the wheel
Chinese students in Australia have
been forced to stage their own kidnap-
pings by scammers who extort millions
of dollars from their families.
In one case last month a Chinese
father paid A$2 million (£1.1 million)
after he received a video of his Sydney-
based daughter tied up with rope at an
unspecified location. Another family
paid $300,000 after they received a
video of their 22-year-old daughter
bound and blindfolded.
The scam, known as virtual kidnap-
ping, has netted at least $3.2 million in
ransom payments, according to police.
Eight cases have been reported in theParents are duped out of
millions by fake kidnaps
city over the past year. Investigators say
initial contact with victims is made by
phone from someone usually speaking
Mandarin and claiming to be a repre-
sentative of the Chinese authorities.
The caller attempts to convince the vic-
tim that they must pay a large sum to
avoid legal action, arrest or deportation
because of a “crime” in China. Victims
are coerced into staging a kidnapping
by renting a hotel room and taking pho-
tos or video of themselves tied up.
These are forwarded to their families.
Darren Bennett, of New South Wales
police, said that the authorities had
contacted the Chinese embassy and the
consulate in Sydney to warn their
communities about the scam.Bernard Lagan
Chinese chateaux wither on the vine
France
Adam Sage Paris
the Bordeaux Wine Council said that it
knew of fewer than five where this had
happened.
Corinne Lantheaume, regional sec-
retary of the French Democratic Fed-
eration of Labour, said that her union,
which represented the Château de Pic
staff, had been contacted by employees
of other Chinese-owned châteaux.
“Some of the owners have what I would
say is a western culture and are inter-
ested in wine, and they run the vine-
yards in a normal way,” she said. “But
others just seem to have bought them
for the image and forgotten that hard
work goes into producing wine.”
Staff at one vineyard told the owner
they needed a new harvesting machine,
she said, and were told to borrow from
a neighbour. When they pointed out
that the neighbour would need the ma-chine at harvest time, “he replied that
they should do the harvesting in June”,
at least two months before grapes
would be ripe, Ms Lantheaume said.
Investors arrived in Bordeaux during
a boom in exports of wine to China
more than a decade ago, often paying
high prices for little-known vineyards.
After a free trade deal was signed
between China and Australia, however,
the French boom ended. President Xi’s
campaign against corruption did not
help. Haichang conglomerate had ten
Bordeaux vineyards seized by a French
court in 2018 over allegations in France
and in China. It denied wrongdoing.
One of the seized properties was
Château Chabiran. Its vines have been
left untended; neighbouring wine-
makers say that powdery mildew dis-
ease is flourishing in the area as a result.