Thaksin founded the mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service and the IT and telecommunications conglomerate Shin Corporation in 1987, ultimately making him one of the richest people in Thailand.

A protest movement against Thaksin, called People's Alliance for Democracy or "Yellow Shirts", launched mass demonstrations, accusing him of corruption, abuse of power, and autocratic tendencies.

Yindi's father, Charoen Ramingwong (born: Wang Chuan Cheng), was a Chinese Hakka immigrant[15] who married Princess Chanthip na Chiangmai, a minor member of the Lanna (Chiang Mai) royalty.

[29][30] In 1988, he joined Pacific Telesis to operate and market the PacLink pager service, a modest success, though Thaksin later sold his shares to establish his own paging company.

[citation needed] On 15 August 1997, Thaksin became Deputy Prime Minister in Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's government, after the Thai baht was floated and devalued on 2 July 1997, sparking the Asian financial crisis.

With a populist platform often attributed to Somkid, TRT promised universal access to healthcare, a three-year debt moratorium for farmers, and one million baht locally managed development funds for all Thai villages.

In 2011, the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand released a final report after two years of work, stating that all political crises were caused by the "Thaksin stock hiding case" in which the Constitutional Court acted unlawfully.

[60] Thaksin Shinawatra was the first prime minister of Thailand to complete a full term in office, and his rule is generally agreed to have been one of the most distinctive in the country's modern history.

However, his government was increasingly accused of dictatorship, demagogy, corruption, conflicts of interest, human rights offences, acting undiplomatically, using legal loopholes and displaying hostility towards a free press.

[74] [citation needed]It was to delegate school management from the over-centralized and bureaucratised Ministry of Education to Tambon Administrative Organizations (TAOs), but met with massive widespread opposition from Thailand's 700,000 teachers, who would be deprived of their status as civil servants.

[103] In a 2003 birthday address, King Bhumibol subtly criticised the handling of the war on drugs by the government, hinting at a misplacement of accountability for its casualties onto him, despite constitutional provisions that exempt the monarch from governmental responsibilities.

[116] In March 2005, Thaksin established the National Reconciliation Commission, chaired by former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun to oversee efforts to bring peace to the troubled South.

A key component of Thaksin's administrative reform policy, the "CEO-governors" epitomised what was called his "transformation of the operating style of the traditional bureaucracy into a more results-oriented instrument that would be responsive."

[121] After the coup, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, drafted the royal decree on the management and preparation of budget plans for the development of provincial and district groups starting in 2008.

More controversially, he established close, friendly ties with the Burmese dictatorship, including extending the impoverished country a 4 billion baht credit line so it could conclude a satellite telecom deal with his family business.

Shortly after, he condemned his opponent's self-proclaimed affinity with ordinary people, the "phrai" (Thai: ไพร่), arguing that Thaksin was far closer to the "ammart", or the traditional elites in Thailand's army, bureaucracy, and political parties.

[137] The political crisis was catalysed by accusations published by media mogul and popular talk show host Sondhi Limthongkul, a former Thaksin supporter who had broken with him.

[150] Protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy massed in 2006, and on 19 September 2006 a military junta which later called itself the Council for National Security (CNS) replaced Thaksin's caretaker government in a coup while he was abroad.

[169] The military, originally calling itself the Council for Democratic Reform under the Constitutional Monarch (CDRM), issued a statement citing the government's alleged lèse majesté, corruption, interference with state agencies, and creation of social divisions as reasons for the coup.

Prime Minister General Surayud Chulanont accused "those who lost power as a result of the military takeover" of masterminding the bombings, but did not directly identify Thaksin.

The charge was based on an alleged violation of Article 100 of the National Counter Corruption Act, which prohibits government officials and their spouses from entering into or having interests in contracts made with state agencies under their authority.

As prime minister, Thaksin had unsuccessfully sought to buy the English Premier League football clubs Fulham and later Liverpool, in what critics claimed was a publicity stunt in response to his political problems.

[188] In June the Supreme Court denied Thaksin's request to travel to China and Britain, since his corruption case was set for trial and was ordered to surrender his passport after arraignment.

The Thailand Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions issued a second arrest warrant on 16 September 2008 against Thaksin over another of the four pending corruption cases and ordered suspension of the trial.

[201][202][203][204] [205] On 21 October 2008, the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions ruled that Thaksin, while prime minister, abused his power to help his wife buy public land at auction, and sentenced him to two years in jail.

[219] In a November 2009 interview, Thaksin told The Times that he was living in Dubai, still had access to about US$100 million of his money outside of Thailand, and was investing in gold mines, diamond polishing, and lottery licenses in various countries.

[221] In mid-April 2009, violent protests of mostly Thaksin supporters calling themselves the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) led to the cancellation of the ASEAN summit in Pattaya and a declaration of a state of emergency in Bangkok.

Prior to the transfer, Panthongtae had signed an agreement with his father to settle a 4.5 billion baht debt from buying 300 million shares of the Thai Military Bank (TMB).

[251] Following several postponements as the government formation process dragged on, he arrived on 22 August, the same day that Pheu Thai candidate Srettha Thavisin would be voted in as prime minister, and was promptly taken to the Supreme Court and then Bangkok Remand Prison to serve a sentence of eight years.

[257] On 14 March, he made his first public appearance since his release at the City Pillar Shrine in Bangkok wearing a neck brace and accompanied by Paetongtarn, before going to Chiang Mai Province.