Thaksin Shinawatra’s Mystery Fixer Man

South African’s links to both Thaksin and Cambodia’s Hun Sen

Thaksin Lunches with Mauerberger (right). Photo by Tom Wright

A shape-shifting South African named Benjamin Mauerberger, sometimes known as Ben Smith, has built ties to both the Thaksin Shinawatra and Hun Sen dynasties in Thailand and Cambodia that have earned him a nickname in Bangkok as a “fixer” and the “Jho Low of Thailand,” a reference to the fugitive Malaysian financier at the center of Malaysia’s massive 1MDB scandal.

Mauerberger is the lit fuse to an explosive article by former Wall Street Journal correspondent Tom Wright, in his Hunting Whales newsletter and podcast, published earlier this week describing Thaksin’s vast hidden fortune that includes African diamond, gold and platinum mining ventures, suspected Cambodian assets via proxies through individuals like Mauerberger, international properties in London, Dubai and Montenegro – where he has citizenship in case he needs a bolthole – a US$60 million Bombardier Global G7500 corporate jet brokered to him by Mauerberger, offshore funds from the sale of his Shin Corporation telecommunications empire, and gold reserves and cryptocurrency holdings.

Wright is the co-author of The Billion-Dollar Whale, a meticulously reported tale of the 1MDB scandal, which cost the Malaysian treasury at least US$5.4 billion. He describes Mauerberger as a “convicted criminal on the run, and a notorious fixer for Cambodia’s elite,” a description that also appears to hearken back to the first part of the century when he was described as a “boiler room operator” in New Zealand, allegedly using high-pressure tactics to cold-call potential investors into buying worthless shares, often at inflated prices, according to an October 1, 2006 article in the London-based Guardian newspaper.

Wright’s article is presumably percolating through the upper reaches of the Thai elite, stirring more trouble for the 75-year-old Thaksin, who returned to Bangkok last November from a 15-year exile to seek to run the country’s broken, deeply corrupt government – by remote control, ostensibly from retirement – after more than a decade of stagnation following military and judicial coups that have left the economy, once one of Southeast Asia’s most vibrant, in tatters.

But Thaksin, the puppeteer of the Pheu Thai government, has run into heavy weather, with Bangkok’s traditional royalists and business elites seeking to break his hold on power. His troubles deepened today when Thailand’s constitutional court sacked the country’s prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s daughter, who had already been suspended from office. She is the fifth prime minister to be removed by the court since 2008 and it is unclear who will replace her.

The Run for Bangchak

Asia Sentinel’s reporting found that a “South African” who acted as the nominee, reportedly used Chartered Group to acquire 31.35 million shares representing 24.96 percent of issued shares of Bangchak Corporation in September 2024. He remains the largest single shareholder. The shares were said to be held for an “influential politician” –allegedly Thaksin – in the aborted purchase, which sources say were to be flipped to “retired” Cambodian leader Hun Sen.

Bangchak Corporation, formerly Bangchak Petroleum, is a major Thai energy company in oil refining, retail, and sustainable energy through a flock of subsidiaries. The “South African” is believed to be Mauerberger. The share transaction had to be canceled, however, according a February report by the Thai Isra News outlet, because the Thailand Social Security Fund, which owns 14 percent of Bangchak, refused to sell despite pressure from the Phu Thai government, which Thaksin controls from behind the scenes. That angered Hun Sen.

Bangchak, according to reports, is attractive because it is independently managed and has the potential for major growth. Beyond that, with an investment budget of about Bt100 billion (US$3.09 billion) in the next four to five years, Bangchak is expected to become a base for further investment in the Thailand-Cambodia Maritime Overlap Area, a Golf of Thailand region disputed between Thailand and Cambodia that is potentially rich in natural gas and oil reserves.

Whether or not the two matters were linked, Hun Sen, as has been widely reported, angrily leaked a June 15 phone call from Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn, Thailand’s prime minister, in which she was trying to defuse a simmering border conflict that took the lives of 33 soldiers on both sides and displaced thousands of civilians, in which she referred to him as "uncle" and criticized the Thai Second Army commander as being on the "other side" of both the Thai and Cambodian governments.

Paetongtarn and Hun Sen. Photos from CNA

Publication of the phone call caused an uproar in Bangkok, costing Paetongtarn her job, and served as a pretext for the influential Bhumjaithai Party, then the second biggest in the Pheu Thai governing coalition, to quit. It also pointed up Thaksin's long-standing ties to Cambodia, a country from which he waged his marathon campaign to return from exile after being ousted as Thailand’s prime minister in 2006.

In apparent retaliation, immediately after Hun Sen leaked the phone call, Thai police raided Bangkok properties supposedly controlled by Kok An, a Cambodian casino magnate close to the Hun Sen family, seizing luxury assets and freezing Bt1.17 billion in funds.

“Investment Consultant”

Mauerberger describes himself on his LinkedIn page as a Toronto-based investment consultant “with an extensive background in international market exchanges.” He has become close to Thaksin, distressing many of the elite because of his reputation, says a well-wired member of Bangkok’s elite financial community who asked not to be identified out of concern for retribution.

Mauerberger’s link to the Cambodian elite is said to be through Yim Leak, the son of Yim Chhay Ly, the Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia and Chairman of the Council for Agriculture and Rural Development. Yim Leak is also the chairman of Cambodia's B.I.C. Group and Hun Sen's ally.

Mauerberger seems to have become the linchpin between the Thai and Cambodian clans. Reportedly, he became a Cambodian citizen, but applied to renounce his Cambodian nationality to become a Thai citizen. However, his application for naturalization, under the name Ben Smith Ben and holding a Cambodian passport, wasn’t immediately approved, over reports that he might hold other nationalities besides Cambodian, and the names used were inconsistent.

As Wright reported, in April Thaksin was photographed with Mauerberger while “in the process of negotiating the purchase of a Bombardier Global G7500, a luxury jet that Thaksin now uses for his global travels.”

Although almost nobody in Thailand appears aware of him outside the power elites, Mauerberger seems to have become a flamboyant figure in Bangkok, tooling around the city in a Ferrari, married to a Thai businesswoman who has taken his name to become known as Kitty Mauerberger. The two are said to throw lavish parties connected to Thaksin’s inner circle. The couple also have an opulent home in Phuket and recently traded a 51-meter yacht for two bigger ones.

The one that was too small

“The fact that Thaksin would rely on a figure of Mauerberger’s reputation raises serious questions about his connections to an international underworld with deep roots in Cambodia,” Wright said in his newsletter.

As Asia Sentinel reported on June 3, transnational organized cybercrime centered in Southeast Asia, and particularly Cambodia, is now “the world’s fastest growing and most dangerous illegal industry.” The story described a 73-page report that directly implicates Prime Minister Hun Manet, Hun Sen’s son, and his deputy premier, Vongsey Vissoth along with 28 other top Cambodian government and business leaders as well as officials of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing as deeply immersed in that criminal underground to enrich themselves. Hun Manet denied the charges.