34 Year Old Jet Setting Thai Monks Assets Could be Worth More than A Billion Baht

 

BANGKOK – The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) is gathering evidence to ban the controversial monk ” Luang Pu Nen Kham Chattiko” and his associates from transferring any assets due to suspicions of money laundering.

The controversial 34-year-old high-profile monk caught on tape riding in a private jetliner has numerous “financial irregularities” – such as 10 of 16 bank accounts belonging to him and aides that have more than 200 million baht in constant circulation.

Recent media reports have alleged that Luang Pu had “secret intimate relationships” with eight women, and that he may have had a child with two of the women. That is a line of questioning Amlo could pursue to determine if he had paid any of the women.

Amlo also will examine the monk’s personal use of credit cards while travelling abroad. He is currently in Europe and has postponed his return indefinitely.

It is too early to talk about confiscation of cash or assets belonging to the monk, Pol Capt Suwanee said.

The assets examination came after members of an online social network group calling itself the “Facebook network against acts that destroy the nation, religion and the royal institution”, last week asked Amlo to look into Luang Pu’s assets and the temple’s donations.

The investigation into the Si Sa Ket-based abbot’s unusual wealth was spurred by an anti-corruption network led by Songkran Atchariyasup.

Songkran Atchariyasap, chairman of the group, said the monk may have misused temple donations. He said the monk’s assets, including cash, gold ornaments and land, could be worth more than one billion baht

Amlo officials will pay a visit to the abbot’s Khantitham forest hermitage next week to deepen the probe before seeking approval from the agency’s transactions committee to launch a full investigation on July 19.