A FEW months before Yingluck Shinawatra became prime minister, German spies in the state of Bavaria found themselves facing an exotic problem: her billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was to be granted a royal audience. The crown prince of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn, was already a familiar visitor to southern Germany’s Alpine foothills. But in deigning to greet Mr Thaksin on foreign soil, the prince was meeting not only a former prime minister but also a fugitive from Thai justice. - See more at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2014/05/future-thailands-elite#sthash.SPjKAe0k.dpuf