Prachuap: Finance woman admits stealing 33 million baht of public funds to finance online gambling

[webfact]

Prachuap: Finance woman admits stealing 33 million baht of public funds to finance online gambling

 

Picture: naew Na

 

Officials acting on behalf of the governor of Prachuap Khiri Khan province served a court order on a 28 year old woman in the technical finance section of the local council on Saturday. 

 

Khanitha Hoithong was reported by Naew Na as admitting that she siphoned off 33 million baht of public money for online gambling. 

 

She has been charged with embezzlement by the falsification of documents.

 

She is the daughter of a former kamnan of Klong Wan district. She is now in custody and has been denied bail by the court.

 

She claims to have acted alone but provincial governor Phallop Singhaseni is not so sure and has set up a committee of inquiry into the matter. 

 

The case relates to money that was left over from drought relief projects. 

 

Records show that the suspect forged signatures to help herself to the funds that were transferred to relatives' accounts then used for gambling. 

 

Sometimes when the gambles paid off the money was returned. It has been going on since at least June 2019. 

 

Governor Phallop wants to get to the root cause of how an official in the accounts department of his administration was able to circumvent safeguards and steal public money. 

 

Source: Naew Na

[colinneil]

24 minutes ago, webfact said:

She claims to have acted alone but provincial governor Phallop Singhaseni is not so sure and has set up a committee of inquiry into the matter. 

No way was she acting alone, 33 million and nobody noticed, ha, ha, ha.

Now lets hope the committee is made up of people in no way connected with that office.

[TooBigToFit]

This is Thailand. This is happening everywhere on every level. Just look at people from the National level politicians to the PhuYai Bahn getting richer. Accountants have always been involved in crimes to make things happen. If it isn't straight out stealing for their boss or themselves, it's other slippery stuff. Before the coup and present regime, the national accounting offices chose to abuse their positions and get involved in politics by slowing down access to funds related to the previous government. This increased pressure on the people then as the government was unable to move money to resolve commitments it had made. Well, that's the past but it represents accounting offices in government in Thailand. It is now and the way things will probably continue to be in the future. So this female financial officer's exploits are no doubt just the tip of the iceberg in her province and in Thailand.

[loong]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Governor Phallop wants to get to the root cause of how an official in the accounts department of his administration was able to circumvent safeguards and steal public money. 

Nice to see someone willing to learn.

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

One of my first teaching jobs was at a small thesaban (municipal) school out in the sticks. I made many visits to city hall to do paperwork, meet with the head of education, and pose for photo ops as they rarely got farangs in those positions. Ah, it's a hard job those govt office workers got, playing on Facebook, online shopping, doing their make up, and drinking Cafe Amazon. Even my Thai colleagues would laugh and joke about this. It's not difficult to imagine how someone with access to money would get caught up in online gambling, and waste it away over the hours and days.

 

But I remember many stories like this back in the States as well. In those cases, they said the reason the lost amounts got to be so big, is because once the gamblers began losing a sizable amount, the pressure would be on to somehow finally score that jackpot that would bring it all back, which of course never happens.

[poohy]

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

No way was she acting alone, 33 million and nobody noticed, ha, ha, ha.

Now lets hope the committee is made up of people in no way connected with that office.

klong wan is 10 mins away by motorbike from me  time to pop around to see if they have dropped the odd 100 000 block

 

And i you believe no one knew in that inbred town you really need your head examining!

Edited June 22, 2020 by poohy

[transam]

There must have been .....

 

[poohy]

I am happy to lower my moral standing and ethics (I mean i post and read the stuff on here) just disappointed i was not invited to the divy out..i would have paid my own petrol to get to the trough

[pineapple01]

So the Boss finds a Sacrificial Lamb.

[steven100]

33 million baht is not chicken feed ,  it's more like roast pork & sauerkraut.

she has got a lot of explaining to do , sadly as usual .....  it will all be porky pies

Thailand is the LOL land of lies.   hahaha ...

[stouricks]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

funds that were transferred to relatives' accounts

Are they being questioned/arrested.

[Dap]

Gambling/Politics/Prostitution/Lottery will always make money no matter how badly the economy fares.

[soalbundy]

44 minutes ago, stouricks said:

Are they being questioned/arrested.

"We thought it was divine intervention"

[soalbundy]

Everyone's a winner baby that's for sure

[Pique Dard]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

She is the daughter of a former kamnan of Klong Wan district

daddy has still some useful contacts! she won't stay long in jail if convicted

[digger70]

 Finance woman admits stealing 33 million baht of public funds to finance online gambling     

 

The Daughter of the ex headman from Klong Wan.

She had a good teacher (But she got caught)

[RichardColeman]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

The case relates to money that was left over from drought relief projects. 

Since Thailand appears to always be in drought that surprises me more than the theft

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Officials acting on behalf of the governor of Prachuap Khiri Khan province served a court order on a 28 year old woman in the technical finance section of the local council on Saturday. 

 

Khanitha Hoithong was reported by Naew Na as admitting that she siphoned off 33 million baht of public money for online gambling

Wow and no-one noticed for how long?