11 September 2006 :

a Thai court sentenced two men to death and one to life imprisonment for the 1999 murder of an Australian auditor, who was slain by a hired gunman after uncovering alleged fraud at a sugar mill. Michael Wansley, 58, was travelling to a sugar mill in northern Thailand on March 10, 1999 when two men on a motorcycle pulled alongside his van and shot him. The two men sentenced to death were retired police officer Sompong Buasakul, who killed Wansley and a company employee and Somchoke Sutheevirawan, who drove the getaway motorcycle. Another company executive, Boonphan Sutheevirawan, the mill's human resources manager and a failed political candidate, was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to kill Wansley. Boonphan and Somchoke are brothers. The three executives had allegedly plotted the killing because Wansley had uncovered financial wrongdoing at their sugar company. Wansley, an employee of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, had been hired by the banking creditors of the Kaset Thai Sugar Co. to help deal with the company's $ 450 million debt (16 billion baht at the time).