The black Toyota minivan made slow but steady progress down the narrow, unpaved road as it approached the village of Takhli in south central Thailand, approximately 0 miles north of Bangkok. On either side of the bumpy road were fields of sugarcane, dense thickets of scrub brush, and an occasional rice paddy. Seated in a rear window seat of the minivan was Michael Wansley, a senior partner with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu who was based in that firm's Melbourne, Australia, practice four office. The vehicles other occupants were Thai nationals and employees of Kase Thai sugar compan No doubt, the five weary travelers who had spent eral hours cramped minivan were overjoyed when they finally caught a glimpse of the large sugar mill in the distance that was their final destination. The sugar mill was one of many owned and operated by the Kaset Thai Sugar Compan For the past several weeks Mehael Nonsley had been restructuring engagement for the company's banks and other lenders Kaset Thai Sugar had deNufed%n nearly $500 million of loans to those lenders. Wansley and the 14 subordinates on his engagement team were to study the company ing records and business operations and then make recommendations about the lenders should proceed in attempting to collect all at least, a significant or ortion-of the outstanding loans Wansley, a wdt known ructuring expert. had become all too familiar with remote Thailand communities such i over the previous several months be. as cause the services of debt-restructuring specialists were much in demand within Thailand during the late 1990s. In March 1999 when Wansley visited the sugar mill on the outskirts of Takhli, te nation of Thailand was mired in a financial From 1985 through 1995. Thailand had boasted the rate in the highest economic growth world, aging almost 9 percent annually over that time That trend prompted span. billions of dollars of foreign direct investment in Thailand companies, the bulk of which was in the form of loans Thailand's impressive economic wth came to a jarring halt in 1997. undercu by