The Supreme Court has banned former Klatham Party MP Ekarat Changlao from running in elections for life for serious ethical breaches arising from the multi-million-baht embezzlement of a teachers’ savings cooperative in Khon Kaen.
The ruling issued on Tuesday was retroactive to July 8 last year, when he was suspended from his MP duties after the court accepted a petition from the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
The suspension came four months after Ekarat was sentenced to 12 years and 9 months in jail for the embezzlement. He was released on bail of 3 million baht pending an appeal that is still under way.
Ekarat was elected as an MP for Khon Kaen in 2019 under the Palang Pracharath Party banner. He later moved to the Bhumjaithai Party, which expelled him in April 2025, citing the recommendation of its ethics committee after his sentencing for embezzlement.
Ekarat then joined the Klatham Party, but in January this year, the Court of Appeal sentenced him and two accomplices to 20 years in a related case. He is appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court.
With his legal troubles mounting, Ekarat abandoned plans to contest the February 2026 election.
In its ruling on Tuesday, the Supreme Court revoked his right to run in any election and hold any political position for life. His voting rights were suspended for 10 years.
Ekarat served as the manager of the Khon Kaen Teachers Savings Cooperative from 2011 to 2019, the court heard. On Aug 16, 2011, he and his accomplices withdrew 96 million baht from the account of the cooperative and deposited the money to his account.
In October 2012, they spent the cooperative’s money to buy five land plots covering a combined 6.5 rai from Sukhumvit Asset Management Co and the ownership was transferred to Ekarat.
Ekarat then pledged three land plots to guarantee the debt of a company that had borrowed from the cooperative.
Between 2011 and 2019, the court heard, the defendants doctored the bank accounts of the cooperative to deceive shareholders, claiming it held 432 million baht. In fact, only about 79,000 baht was left.
Ekarat returned 100 million baht to the cooperative through four bank transfers between 2022 and 2024.
