Nalinee Taveesin, previously Thailand’s trade representative, was named a Cabinet minister in the Prime Minister’s Office during last week’s reshuffle of Yingluck Shinawatra’s government.
The opposition has expressed dismay over the appointment, questioning whether it violates the Thai constitution’s ethics code for lawmakers.
Undeterred, Yingluck’s office announced Tuesday that Nalinee’s duties would include overseeing the National Identity Office, which according to the agency’s website is responsible for promoting the “unique and noble values that distinguish Thailand.”
The U.S. Treasury Department in 2008 named Nalinee a crony of Mugabe and said she had “facilitated a number of financial, real-estate and gem-related transactions” on behalf of Mugabe’s wife and other figures in Zimbabwe.
“Ironically, Nalinee Taveesin has participated in a number of initiatives on corruption … in Africa and Southeast Asia while secretly supporting the kleptocratic practices of one of Africa’s most corrupt regimes,” the department said at the time.
It froze any potential U.S. assets and banned American citizens from doing business with her.
Deputy government spokesman Anusorn Eiamsa-ard defended Nalinee as “a person of great expertise and experience,” saying she had been thoroughly vetted before being named to the Cabinet. He said she has tried to explain herself to U.S. authorities and dismissed the blacklisting as “one-sided.”