Thailand earthquake: Construction magnate surrenders on felony negligence charges over building collapse

Rescue personnel work at the site of a building that collapsed, following a strong earthquake, in Bangkok, Thailand, on March 29, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A construction magnate and more than a dozen other people surrendered to police on Friday (May 16, 2025) on charges of criminal negligence for the collapse of a Bangkok high-rise building during an earthquake on March 28.

Premchai Karnasuta, the president of Italian-Thai Development Corporation Limited (ITD), the main Thai contractor for the building project, as well as designers and engineers, were among 17 charged with the felony of professional negligence causing death, Bangkok Deputy Police Chief Noppasin Poonsawat said. The accused have publicly denied wrongdoing.

Ninety-two people were confirmed dead in the rubble of the building that had been under construction and a few remain unaccounted for. The building, which was to become a new State Audit Office, was the only one in Thailand to collapse in the earthquake that was centered in neighbouring Myanmar. The search for victims’ remains officially ended on Tuesday (May 13, 2025), though efforts to identify body parts through their DNA will continue.

Mr. Noppasin said at a news conference that evidence and testimony from experts suggested the building plan did not meet standards and codes. The Bangkok Post newspaper said police had also determined that the project showed “structural flaws in the core lift shaft and substandard concrete and steel.”

Thai media have reported allegations of wrongdoing in the project almost every day since the building’s collapse, many of them involving irregular documentation for the project. Their reports have highlighted the role of Italian-Thai’s Chinese joint venture partner, the China Railway No. 10 company, which is involved in projects around the world.

A Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the 17 on Thursday (May 15, 2025). Mr. Noppasin said 15 turned themselves in at a police station in the morning, and the remaining two were expected to do so later on Friday (May 16, 2025).

The epicenter of the quake was in central Myanmar, where it killed more than 3,700 people and caused major damage in Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city, and the capital Naypyitaw.

Premchai’s case is his second major tangle with the law. In 2019, he was convicted of wildlife poaching and served about three years in prison. He was found guilty of killing protected animals and illegal possession of weapons after park rangers found him and other members of a hunting party in the Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand in February 2018.

They were found with guns and the carcasses nearby of a rare black panther, a kalij pheasant and a barking deer. The black panther, which is a member of the leopard species, had been butchered and its meat cooked up for soup.