BANGKOK, 26 November 2014 The Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) secretary-general announced that the assets hidden inside the home of the former Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) chief of the Royal Thai Police were derived from money laundering.
Police Colonel Sihanat Prayoonrat, the AMLO secretary-general, disclosed that the assets that were stashed inside the house of former CIB chief Pongpat Chaiyapan had violated the money laundering laws. More than 10,000 assets worth more than 2 billion baht have been found inside his home.
According to the Anti-Money Laundering Prevention and Suppression Act, Pongpat are found guilty of intentionally hiding his assets and amassing unusual amounts of wealth. These two charges have allowed AMLO to take legal action to seize his assets.
The AMLO is creating an account to correctly evaluate the value of the assets, which are now classified into two categories: the assets that were seized and would be used as evidence by the police and those to be placed under the possession of AMLO.
The AMLO would trace the source of wealth of the former CIB chief and his accomplices to determine where they got the money from.
