Prosecutors allege that Phra Dattajivo, the former acting abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, used about 1 billion baht received from the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative to invest in and manipulate the stock market, using nominees.
Kachornsak Buddhanuphap, senior prosecutor at the Department of Investigation of the Office of the Attorney General, said on Thursday that examination of past financial transactions revealed the money trail.
Phra Dattajivo had other monks and lay people invest about 1 billion baht when he was acting abbot of the temple from 2010 to 2016.
Evidence clearly showed that the money had been transferred from Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative by Supachai Srisupa-aksorn, he said.
Supachai is a former chairman of the KCUC, treasurer of the temple and close aide to Phra Dhammajayo, the founder and former abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya. Supachai was sentenced to 16 years in jail after he confessed to embezzling more than 10 billion baht from the credit union's members.
"Although Phra Dattajivo did not use his name in stock trades, it is believed that groups of people and businessmen acted as nominees who both invested in and manipulated shares," Mr Kachornsak said.
"Donations from the Klongchan cooperative were not transferred to the temple at all. Wat Phra Dhammakaya has only about 100 rai of land. Many of the buildings and land plots were not given to the monastery," he said.
Public prosecutors will question Phra Maha Boonchai Jaruthatto, who supervised the financial affairs of the temple, officials of the Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the brokers who had handled the stock investment by Phra Dattajivo's nominees, Mr Kachornsak said.
On March 8 Phra Dattajivo was stripped of his monastic rank for spending the temple's money on the stock market and providing refuge for Phra Dhammajayo, a suspect wanted for money laundering and receiving stolen assets in connection with the Klongchan embezzlement.
