Bangkok Bank of Commerce. The bank tried hostile takeovers against many of the large Thai companies that traded publicly on the stock exchange. According to later investigation, it also gave cheap loans to various public officials and politicians in India, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Bangkok Bank of Commerce collapsed in 1996 and the Bank of Thailand took it over. The collapse contributed to the Asian financial recession, economic and political crisis and the 1997 devaluation of the baht. Saxena was at his residence in Prague or Zurich at the time the story broke, and he never returned to Thailand. In June 1996, Thai authorities charged Rakesh Saxena, Krikkiat Jalichandre, Rajan Pillai and Adnan Khashoggi and a number of other people with embezzling money estimated to be worth $US2.2 billion (or according to other estimates, $US88 million). Saxena himself had allegedly siphoned off £300 million in 1992–1993 through a string of derivative transactions. Saxena said that he was just an advisor and a trader and that the collapse of the real estate markets was the real trigger of the recession. His relationship with Russian tycoons and Arab sheikhs continues to be a subject of speculation. Detention in Canada The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Saxena on 7 July 1996, at Whistler, British Columbia, on behest of the Thai police. He was initially imprisoned for 2–3 days in a Canadian pre-trial centre. Saxena resisted extradition, claiming that he would be killed if he would return to Thailand. In February 1998, Saxena was put on bail of $2.5 million because he was regarded as a flight risk. British Columbia Supreme Court overturned this ruling on 24 June 1998. This ruling allowed him to resist extradition in Vancouver, using his own guards in what amounted to a self-financed house arrest, costing him $40,000 per month. On 4 September 1998, Thailand asked authorities in 22 countries to freeze his assets, which, at the time, amounted to $135–300 million. Thailand also filed a civil suit against him. In September 2005, the lower Canadian court ruled that Saxena should be extradited but the government of Canada did not enforce this ruling. Saxena further delayed his extradition with appeals. On 21 October 2005, the Canadian court postponed Saxena's extradition once again until January 2006. On 3 March 2006, Saxena lost his B.C. Court of Appeal bid to overturn the federal justice minister's order that he