The billionaire who lost his country

Coup! BRUCE PALLING on the arrogant tycoon who got his comeuppance

The fate of Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's former Prime Minister, should be a lesson for all those Third World leaders who use their new private jets to attend important international meetings and mingle with the rich and powerful.

No sooner had he arrived at the UN headquarters in New York than his military commander-in-chief ousted him in a coup.

His flight to London today in his spanking new Air Force One could well be his last outing at government expense. Fortunately for him, he did manage to sell his family telecommunications business earlier this year, taking a personal slice of just under $2bn. And he didn't pay any tax on it either.

The one thing most people in the West known about Thaksin is that he is a very rich businessman with an image problem. He is far more complex and interesting than that.

A former police colonel, he made a fortune through political connections which enabled him to win lucrative concessions for the first Thai mobile network and then later to control Thailand's original telecoms satellite. He also owned stakes in airlines and luxury hotel groups.

That was his real problem. Thaksin thought that Thailand should be run like a business and that as he was the CEO, all he had to do was bark out his orders and then get onto the next issue. It all nearly came unstuck in his first year in office, when a court charged him with a highly technical corruption crime. Fortunately for him, he was vindicated in an 8-7 vote - something that won't happen again.

To his credit, Thaksin was the