Deputy abbot suspected of malfeasance

Wat Phra Dhammakaya deputy abbot Phra Thattacheewo is suspected of using the temple’s money to buy shares and land, authorities say.

Kajornsak Putthanuphab, executive director of the Office of the AttorneyGeneral’s Investigation Office 3, and Pol Col Pakorn Sucheevakun, director of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI)’s Bureau of Financial and Banking Crime, made the revelations yesterday.

They were speaking after a meeting of officials handling money-laundering cases in connection with Wat Phra Dhammakaya.

Based on an investigation into the temple’s money trail, they said it was clear that Phra Thattacheewo, who is also the temple’s deputy abbot, pulled the money out of the temple’s bank accounts and purchased company shares and land. No details of the amount of money were provided.

As the monk is serving as a state official in the post of deputy abbot of the temple, he is bound by Section 157 of the Criminal Code governing malfeasance, the officials said.

An investigation is under way in this case and more evidence will be found, they said.

Those present at the meeting divided the temple’s money laundering offences into 15 cases, including foundations, a group of people and individuals, who used the temple’s money to buy land but did not transfer the property to the temple.

Meanwhile, the DSI is set to question a daughter of property tycoon Anant Asavabhokhin for alleged money laundering in connection with the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative (KCUC) embezzlement scandal, according to a DSI source.

Supachai Srisupa-akson, former chairman of the KCUC, was convicted of siphoning money from his organisation. He was found to have used the KCUC money to buy land in Pathum Thani’s Khlong Luang district under his name. After he faced embezzlement accusations in April 2013, he sold eight blocks of land to Alisa Asavabhokhin, Mr Anant’s daughter, on June 7, 2013, and land to another woman.