A former chief of the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) yesterday turned himself in to the police Counter Corruption Division (CCD) to hear money laundering charges against him in connection with the temple fund embezzlement scandal.
Phanom Sornsilp, the NOB ex-director, turned up at the CCD in the afternoon after being summonsed to acknowledge the charges relating to the alleged mishandling of funds allocated to three Buddhist temples for maintenance in the 2015 fiscal year.
A source close to the investigation said Mr Phanom denied the charges and would be defending himself in court.
The former NOB chief was charged with money laundering over the embezzlement scandal involving three temples in the provinces of Nakhon Pathom, Lop Buri and Phetchaburi.
Pol Col Warayut Sukwat, deputy commander of the CCD, said Mr Phanom was linked to the alleged embezzlement which took place when he was the NOB director and authorised funds for the temple maintenance project.
He said some of the suspects implicated in the scandal had turned themselves in to answer the charges while others had apparently fled overseas.
The investigators interrogated him for about three hours before allowing him to leave.
The charges followed the CCD's first investigation into the 60-million-baht embezzlement involving 12 temples between 2012 and 2016. Ten people have been charged and the findings hande to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for further action.
In the follow-up investigation, the CCD raided 14 locations in seven provinces to gather evidence and discovered that funds allocated to promote Buddhism had also been subject to abuse. Nineteen people were charged in connection with this case which alleged fraud worth 140 million baht between 2012-2017.
Early last month, the NACC decided to bring charges against Mr Phanom and eight other ex-officials for graft in connection with embezzlement at three temples in the South.
The NOB received a budget of 4.5 billion baht in fiscal year 2015, 459 million baht of which was set aside for activities aimed at promoting Buddhism, according to NACC secretary-general Worawit Sukboon.
In July 2015, Sathien Damrongkadeerat, who at the time served as the director of the Songkhla Provincial Office of Buddhism, contacted the three temples, saying he would earmark budgets for them on condition they repay a fixed amount to him, according to Mr Worawit. The budget-allocating committee met agreed to grant the temples 4 million baht apiece. It was Mr Phanom who approved the transfers.
