Deputy PM to follow up with agencies over credit union
JEERAPONG PRASERTPONKRUNG,
PIYANUT TUMNUKASETCHAI,
PRAPHAN JINDALERTUDOMDEE,
KAMONCHANOK THIKHAKUL
THE NATION

Link between Dhammakaya temple, its abbot to embazzlement to be probed

BANGKOK: -- DEPUTY Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam will today meet with four agencies to follow up progress on the investigation into the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative's embezzlement and possible links to the Dhammakaya Temple and its abbot Phra Dhammachayo.

The temple and the abbot are found to have received more than Bt800million in donations from the embezzlement-plagued cooperative, which has sustained more than Bt10billion in damages.

Wissanu is scheduled to have a meeting with the Cooperative Auditing Department, the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), the National Police Office and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) this afternoon.

Yesterday, the AMLO announced that it is probing the Dhammakaya Temple's landholdings.

Located in Pathum Thani, the temple is situated on a very expansive compound.

"We don't stay idle. We are investigating [the matter]," AMLO secretary general Seehanart Prayoonrat said yesterday.

The AMLO is acting in response to the recommendations from the National Reform Council committee on the protection of Buddhism, which is headed by Paiboon Nititawan.

Seehanart did not go into detail yesterday on the scope of the temple's land probe. However, the temple's abbot Phra Dhammachayo is said to have held more than 20,000 rai of land, including those registered under his name and his nominees.

The Paiboon-headed committee has lately put Phra Dhammachayo under much public scrutiny by suggesting that he should have already been automatically defrocked over an embezzlement through a written statement issued in 1999 by the then-Supreme Patriarch.

Phra Dhammachayo and the Dhammakaya Temple have also received more than Bt800million in donations from Supachai Srisupa-aksorn, a former president of the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative. Supachai is now accused of illegitimately funnelling more than Bt10billion out of the cooperative.

Seehanart yesterday said the AMLO had also been checking the financial flow involving this cooperative.

"We will confiscate assets that are found to have acquired illegitimately and in violation against the anti-money laundering laws," he said.

He, however, made clear that the DSI would have to handle any criminal proceedings against persons involved in the co-operative-embezzlement case.

Recipients of cheques to be summoned

At present, the DSI has already issued summons for the recipients of suspiciously-issued cheques that brought money out of the cooperative's account.

Phra Dhammachayo, for example, was asked to report himself to the DSI. He can meet the DSI from March 10 onward.

"We believe he will answer the summons," Pol Lt-Colonel Somboon Sarasit of the DSI said.

Meanwhile, NRC chairman Thienchay Kiranandana yesterday insisted that the NRC would not make any recommendation on Buddhist-monk reform.

"That's not our duty. Monks will have to take care of that themselves," he said.

Thienchay said the NRC, however, had the mandate to act on laymen issues including monk impersonators.

"We need to help upholding Buddhism," he said.

He was speaking after several groups of monks and their followers expressed dissatisfaction about the Paiboon-head committee's recent moves.

Some groups have even demanded that this committee be scrapped.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Deputy-PM-to-follow-up-with-agencies-over-credit-u-30255421.html


-- The Nation 2015-03-06

"The temple and the abbot are found to have received more than Bt800million in donations" WOW! That's a he11 of a lot of money from one source! Hope the authorities get busy with this.