Fugitive Thai banker faces trial

Amandeep Singh led Rakesh Saxena's losing fight against extradition

A fugitive Thai banker has lost a 13-year extradition battle and has been put on a plane back to Thailand from Vancouver, Canada.

The Thai authorities accuse Rakesh Saxena of defrauding more than $80m (£48m) from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce - something he denies.

The bank's collapse in 1996, under the weight of bad loans, exposed regulatory failures in the Thai banking system.

Thai officials say the collapse helped spark the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Mr Saxena has argued that he would be harmed if he returned to Thailand and that he would not receive a fair trial.

But when his lawyer, Amandeep Singh, and his mother, Amrit Sarup, left Vancouver Airport where Mr Saxena was put on a plane, Mr Singh described his client as confident.

Many charges?

"He has chosen not to pursue any more legal challenges here, and ... he'll pursue his legal case in Thailand. He's very confident," Mr Singh told AP Television News.

Amrit Sapur, Rakesh Saxena's mother, may not be seeing him for a while

"He's in good spirits when I spoke to him last, and we will keep abreast of his case in Thailand."

The fugitive is expected to land in Bangkok late on Friday after taking a Thursday afternoon flight from Vancouver to China, and then from Beijing to Thailand, Bangkok.

Thai authorities are reportedly dusting off dozens of case files relating to Mr Saxena's activities - a spokesman for the Office of Thailand's Attorney General told reporters that Mr Saxena has over 20 cases pending against him.

But Mr Singh argued that extradition law provided for trial on one charge only and said he had been assured by the Thai justice department that this would be the case.

Loss of confidence

Mr Saxena, who suffered a stroke last March and uses a wheelchair, was an adviser for the Bangkok Bank of Commerce when Thai authorities charged him in 1996 with setting up a series of phoney loans to siphon millions from the bank.

He fled Thailand and was arrested later that year in the British Columbia ski resort town of Whistler.

The collapse of the bank under $3bn in debts - partly accumulated by unsecured loans made to Thai politicians - created a loss of confidence in the Thai banking system that is blamed for helping to trigger Asia's economic crisis a year later.

Mr Saxena has maintained he is being made a scapegoat by well-connected executives of the bank and by financial regulators embarrassed by the scandal.