Last month, a former Prime Minister (PM) of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, was sentenced to three years in prison for using his position for economic gain. When active as the PM ten years ago, he ordered the country’s Export-Import Bank to give a loan to a satellite communications company that was controlled by him and his family, and a separate case has now seen two more years tacked on. Shinawatra apparently believed he was above the law.

Thailand’s Supreme Court, through its Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions, asserts that the former politician ran a lottery scheme from 2003 on that was similar to other games typically associated with illegal bookmakers. He was found guilty of launching two- and three-digit lottery games and his goal was “to steer some of the money that went to it to government coffers instead,” according to comments by the Associated Press.

Gambling is illegal in Thailand in almost all forms. The country operates a state-run lottery and there is parimutel horseracing, but everything else is prohibited per the country’s Gambling Act of 1935. Of course, this doesn’t prevent illegal gambling operations, which still run rampant and allegedly collect billions of dollars each year.

Shinawatra was a billionaire before his political aspirations surfaced. He had been heavily involved in the telecommunications and IT industries and used his money to create Thailand’s Rak Thai Party before rising to lead the country. He was elected PM in 2001 in an easy win and then reelected four years later.