BANGKOK - A construction tycoon, builder, designer and engineer surrendered to police on Friday as a deadly collapse of the high-rise earthquake hit Myanmar.

Premchai Karnasuta, president of Italian-Thai Development Co, the main contractor of the Thai building project, is a designer and engineer who is 17 felony deaths due to felony negligence.

Noppasin said the people who met with police on Friday formally denied the allegations. Some have previously issued public denials on the media's allegations.

92 people were confirmed dead in the rubble under construction in the building, while a few others remain unreproached. The building will become a new state audit office and is the only building in Thailand that collapsed in the earthquake in the center of Myanmar, neighbouring country. Searches for victims on site have stopped, although efforts to identify remains through DNA will continue.

Noppasin said at a press conference that experts' evidence and testimony showed that the building plan did not meet standards and codes. The Bangkok Post reported that police also determined that the project showed "structural defects in the core lifting shaft and unqualified concrete and steel."

Thai media reported allegations of misconduct from the project since the collapse of the project, many of which involved irregular documents on the project. Their report highlights the role of China Railway No. 10, a Chinese joint venture partner in Italy-Thailand, which has participated in projects around the world.

One of the 17 people charged on Friday was Chinese executive Zhang Chuanling, director of the Italian-Thai development project China Railway No. 10 joint venture. Last month, he was previously arrested for violating Thai business laws for mistakenly using Thai nominees to act as an agent for Chinese companies to control the joint venture. Three Thai executives were also arrested on charges.

The criminal court issued 17 arrest warrants on Thursday's negligence charges. Noppasin said it was getting on the bus at the police station for 15 mornings, and the remaining two were expected to do so later on Friday.

The earthquake was centered in central Myanmar, where more than 3,700 people were killed and caused major damage in the country's second largest city, Mandalay and the capital Naypyitaw.

Premchai's case is his second major entanglement with the law. In 2019, he was convicted of wildlife poaching and sentenced to three years in prison.

After the park ranger discovered a hunting party in a wildlife reserve in 2018, he was found guilty of killing protected animals and illegal possession of weapons, including a rare black panther, a Kaliji pheasant and a barking deer. The leopard was slaughtered and the meat was boiled in soup.