Clock ticks on Thai DPM as online sleuths count his Rolexes
BANGKOK: Thailand’s junta No. 2 has been snapped with 25 different luxury watches worth US$1.2 million (RM4.75 million) since a 2014 coup, social media sleuths said yesterday, a day after the ex-general vowed to resign if a graft panel finds him guilty of wrongdoing.
Prawit Wongsuwan has been under pressure since December when the “CSI LA” Facebook page began to catalogue luxury timepieces worn by the deputy prime minister from photos and Internet news reports.
The concerted social media campaign is urging the kingdom’s anti-graft body to probe how the luxury watches came into Prawit’s possession — and is hugely embarrassing to Thailand’s military government.
It toppled the government of Yingluck Shinwatra in 2014 vowing to purge the country of graft, a scourge it blamed on Thailand's civilian rulers.
Prawit was one of the architects of the coup.
Yesterday, the Thai-language “CSI LA” page raised the watch tally after finding a fresh photo of him wearing a Patek Phillipe model at a temple ceremony in 2014.
“We have found 25 luxury watches worth more than US$1.24 million, including 11 Rolexes, eight Patek Philippes and three Richard Millies,” a post said, urging its near-750,000 followers to unearth more photos.
Prawit has not disputed the number of watches.
But on Tuesday, he said his “friends lent” him watches which he duly returned.