It is notable that by far the largest number of "unusually wealthy' eight- came from the Chart Thai party, and a further three from Social Action. The three Democrats had been cleared, as had the single representatives from the Solidarity and Prachakorn Thai parties. Also of note was the sizable sums of money involved for such a short period of time in office-two and one half years maximum for those who had been ministers or deputy ministers for the entire period of the Chatichai government. Remembering that the figures show the individuals' increases in assets, it is apparent that, for some, to be at the centre of government had been very lucrative indeed. One of those cleared, Chart Thai adviser Dej, had increased his wealth by Bt200 million (US$8 mil- lion) over a two year period. However, questions still surrounded some of those cleared of charges and it was considered possible that political tradeoffs had been made. For example, one of the first to be dropped from the list was Korn, considered to be "rising star" in the Chart Thai Party. His acquittal was headlined in the vernacular press, with Thai Rath highlighting: "Korn, Sitthi's 'good boy', cleared." Santi was another who remained under suspicion in the eyes of the public. He had been twice censured in the House in connection with a bribery scandal and election overspending. Upon being cleared he immediately left SAP to join the military STP. Narong took the same action, abandoning his Solidarity Party to head STP.