Briton nabbed in BKK for allegedly embezzling US$154 mn

BANGKOK, May 21 (TNA) -- Thai police have arrested a British man in the Thai capital for allegedly embezzling US$154 million from a Dubai company, and said Thursday that they are preparing to extradite him to serve a jail sentence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Forty-three-year-old Michael Bryan Smith was apprehended at a restaurant in central Bangkok Wednesday night after UAE authorities requested the Thai authorities help arrest the man once they learned he had escaped to Thailand, police said.

Mr. Smith is alleged to have siphoned other workers’ salaries into his personal bank account between March 11-May 31, 2008 while working as a personnel manager at a Dubai property company.

After escaping from Dubai, Mr. Smith, who is married to a Thai woman, travelled frequently to Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Thailand, police said.

Although Thailand has no extradition treaty with the UAE, this country’s Office of the Attorney General requested the Criminal Court for the detention of Mr. Smith pending his extradition.

Bail has not been allowed as the British national could easily elude surveillance and escape overseas, police said.

Smith reportedly had denied al charges against him. (TNA)