Klongchan embezzlement probe extended after more complaints filed

[Lite Beer]

Klongchan embezzlement probe extended after more complaints filed
The Sunday Nation

BANGKOK: -- The police investigation into the embezzlement scandal at the Bangkok-based Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative has been extended after 60 more people filed complaints, prompting the Department of Special Investigation to interview 40 additional witnesses.

The DSI's special criminal cases office commander Pol Lt-Colonel Somboon Sarasit said the agency had been set to conclude the investigation at the end of July.

He said the additional complaints related to accusations against existing suspects and former cooperative board members and branch managers in the provinces.

The DSI now had to decide who would be forwarded to public prosecutors, he said.

The cooperative's board, assigned by a court to devise a rehabilitation plan for the entity, will meet DSI chief Suwana Suwanjutha on August 10 to discuss the management of assets the DSI seized from the cooperative's former chairman Supachai Srisupa-aksorn and others.

An informed source from the cooperative said damaged cooperative members had been divided into groups.

The source said many members had doubts about the new cooperative board, especially after it spent Bt10 million to hire an outside entity to create the rehabilitation plan, fund trips "to study outstanding cooperatives" and attempt to improve it public image.

Members had demanded that the government allocate between Bt5 billion and Bt7 billion to aid affected members. They opposed the rehabilitation plan, as it was claimed the plan would only benefit the 74 savings cooperatives Klongchan owed money to, the source said.

Members also wanted to see details of the plan and details on the management of assets, including money earned from selling 600 Eua Arthon low-cost houses and 800 Klongchan flats.

If that did not happen, members warned that they would vote against the plan and let the cooperative slip into bankruptcy so all creditors and affected members would benefit equally, the source said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Klongchan-embezzlement-probe-extended-after-more-c-30265696.html

-- The Nation 2015-08-02