The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) will freeze some assets of a former chief of the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) in a temple budget corruption case and impound more valuables from a convicted trader in a rice sales case.
The decisions were reached at a meeting yesterday, said acting Amlo chief Romsit Weeriyasan.
In the first case, 71 million baht worth of assets belonging to Nopparat Benjawatananun, a former director of the National Office of Buddhism, and his collaborators will be frozen and seized after he was found to be involved in the corruption of the state budget for temples, he said.
According to Amlo, the investigation found Mr Nopparat and eight others had conspired to steal from a state budget for the renovation and development of temples during 2012-16.
They first allocated a budget for the purpose, and when the temples received the funds, the monks were instructed to transfer some of the money back to Mr Nopparat or his close aides.
In the second case, Amlo will impound from Apichart "Sia Piang" Chansakulporn 25 items worth 2.3 billion baht after earlier seizing 13 billion baht worth of his assets.
The additional impoundment came after the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions ruled on Aug 25 that Apichart's daughter, Thanyaporn Chansakulporn, was a collaborator in fake government-to-government (G2G) rice sales.
Apichart has been imprisoned since 2015 in a separate case while Thanyaporn has fled.
"Our probe found Thanyaporn had concealed the illegitimately acquired assets by having nominees hold shares in TC Property Co Ltd, leading to more items being frozen," Pol Maj Gen Romsit said.
The court on Aug 25 sentenced Apichart, an executive of rice exporter Siam Indica Co Ltd, to 48 years in prison in the case, and ordered he pay 16.9 billion baht to the Finance Ministry for the damage.
Former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom was sentenced to 42 years in jail and his former deputy Poom Sarapol to 36 years. Their requests for bail pending appeal were denied.
