BANGKOK:<\/b>. Anti-graft prosecutors filed a case in 2021 accusing metal magnate Prayudh Mahagitsiri of colluding with officials to obtain land deeds to extend his Mountain Creek Golf Resort and Residences.<\/p>\n
The 900-acre (360-hectare) 27-hole resort in Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeast of Bangkok, bills itself as \u201ca sensory multiplex for those with lofty desires\u201d.<\/p>\n
But authorities said 74 acres added to the development fell within areas protected by conservation laws.<\/p>\n
The Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct on Thursday found 79-year-old Prayudh guilty of multiple charges including bribery and land encroachment, local media outlets said.<\/p>\n
He was sentenced to 24 years alongside 10 other defendants including his daughter, who was handed a 12-year jail term.<\/p>\n
Prayudh is filing for an appeal, reports said.<\/p>\n
He has an estimated net worth of $2.6 billion, according to Forbes, with business interests in steel and coffee.<\/p>\n
Forbes ranked him Thailand\u2019s 10th richest individual in 2024.<\/p>\n
Golf is a major Thai tourism draw, particularly among enthusiasts from Europe, Japan and South Korea.<\/p>\n
However the sport is often criticised by environmental campaigners because it converts tracts of wilderness into pruned grass greens requiring intensive watering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BANGKOK:. Anti-graft prosecutors filed a case in 2021 accusing metal magnate Prayudh Mahagitsiri of colluding with officials to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[34544,2826,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-68704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-afp","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114438914965377137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}