AUTHORITIES have suspended the confiscation of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s assets as the Legal Execution Department could not locate any property belonging to her, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday.

Wissanu’s comment came a day after Yingluck tearfully said that life had been “extremely difficult” for her this year due to the legal actions pursued against her.

Earlier, the Finance Ministry had issued an executive order holding Yingluck responsible for Bt35.7 billion, or 20 per cent, of the losses arising from her government’s corruption-plagued rice-pledging scheme.

Yingluck later petitioned the Administrative Court seeking an order to repeal the executive order. Wissanu said yesterday that the asset seizure could be started before the court issued a verdict on Yingluck’s petition. Also, the court had yet to issue the injunction sought by Yingluck.

“Since the authorities involved could not locate her assets, they had to suspend their operations,” he said. “They didn’t know where to start. And they couldn’t find any assets that belonged to her.”

The Finance Ministry, as the damaged party, has yet to inform the Legal Execution Department in writing about the details of Yingluck’s assets to be confiscated, according to a source in the department. He said the department’s duty was to confiscate and not locate the assets.

When asked if it were possible that authorities could not find Yingluck’s assets, the source said this was a matter for the Finance Ministry to explain.

In May 2015, a year after leaving office, Yingluck had reported to the National |Anti-Corruption Commission that she had total assets worth Bt610.8 million. These included Bt14.2 million in cash, Bt24.9 million in bank deposits, Bt115.5 million in investments, Bt108.3 million in loans, Bt117.1 million in land plots, Bt162.3 million in properties, and vehicles worth Bt21.9 million.

In addition to the government’s civil action seeking confiscation of her assets, Yingluck is being tried by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders in a criminal case where she is accused of negligence for failing to stop massive irregularities in the rice-pledging scheme.

The last hearing of defence witnesses is scheduled for July 21 and both parties will have 30 days before presenting their closing statements. After that, the court has 14 days to issue a verdict in the case – which is |expected in September.

Other members of Yingluck’s Cabinet – former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and his ex-deputy Poom Sarapol – as well as four former senior civil servants, were also accused of malfeasance in “fake” government-to-government deals to sell rice to China.

The Foreign Trade Department sought Bt20 billion in compensation from six former officials deemed responsible – Bt1.7 billion from Boonsong, Bt2.3 billion from Poom, and Bt4 billion each from the four others.

There are more than 800 other cases stemming from the rice-pledging scheme against the state officials involved that have been taken to court by the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission, according to Wissanu.

The source in the Legal Execution Department said that unlike Yingluck’s case, the Finance Ministry had informed the agency about the details of Boonsong’s assets and it was now in the process of confiscation, although the source declined to discuss further details.