Potjaman Na Pombejra

Khun Ying Potjaman Damapong, formerly Potjaman Shinawatra, née Soypetpotjaman Damapong (born 22 November 1956) is the ex-wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Early life and family Potjaman was the youngest child and only daughter of Potjanee Na Pombejra and her husband Samoe Damapong, a police general who excelled in his work on crime suppression and investigation and became a Deputy Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police. Samoe Damapong came from a family of Lao origin; his paternal grandfather was an Isan Lao from Nong Khai while his maternal grandmother was a princess of the Na Champassak family. Potjaman and Thaksin married in July 1976, and they went on to have one son, Panthongtae, a businessman, and two daughters, Pinthongta and Paethongtarn. In the late 1970s and 1980s Potjaman worked with Thaksin to develop his various commercial ventures. Sale of Shin Corp On 23 January 2006, the Shinawatra family sold their entire stake in Shin Corporation to Temasek Holdings. The Shinawatra and Damapong families netted about 73 billion baht tax-free from the sale, using a regulation that made individuals who sell shares on the stock exchange exempt from capital gains tax.