Authorities suspect a former female politician of being involved in the country's biggest loan shark network after officials found she had transferred 46 million baht to a prime suspect in the case.
A source at the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) said on Thursday that a check of the financial transactions of suspected loan shark boss Wichai Panngam revealed that the former politician had transferred the sum to him in 2012.
Officials suspected that the transfer was aimed at laundering money through the informal lending service of the 46-year-old man.
Amlo will check with the National Anti-Corruption Commission to find out if the former politician had declared any transaction which matched the 46-million-baht transfer, the source said.
The finding came after a request from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) for Amlo to examine the financial transactions of the illicit lending network of Mr Wichai, a native of Pathum Thani province. The DSI and other government organisations are tackling the nationwide racket which involves 2,000 black market creditors lending 4 billion baht to 170,000 borrowers since 2011.
Authorities also believe that about 1,000 state officials had supported the illicit business by abusing their authority to force debtors to make repayments.
When raids started in four provinces this month, including Pathum Thani, Mr Wichai, 46, had left the country on a vacation. The raids resulted in the arrest of only one person suspected of managing an information system for the lending racket, called the Helmet Gang.
Authorities said that Mr Wichai failed to surrender on Wednesday and remained in Japan.
DSI director-general Paisit Wongmuang said on Thursday that Mr Wichai told officials he would turn himself in after the New Year holidays.
He also said that his department would soon seek warrants for the arrest of other key members of the racket in the provinces and prepare rewards for informants who helped to uncover assets of the racket.
Officials were planning measures to help debtors of the network which charged up to 300% in annual interest. There had not been any report on threats against debtors, Pol Col Paisit said.