The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) is preparing to seize assets from two companies including Siam Indica in relation to allegedly fake government-to-government rice deals.
The asset seizure approved by an Amlo committee on Friday will involve 7 billion baht including money in 51 bank accounts, and land plots in Bangkok, Lamphun, Phuket, Phangnga, Ayutthaya and Ang Thong provinces.
It involves Siam Indica and Saralai and people linked to Apichart "Sia Piang" Chansakulporn. Siralai has changed its name to Kitha Properties Co.
Siam Indica has been the target of questions dating back to 2004 when the Thaksin Shinawatra government was in power. An affiliate of now-bankrupt President Agri, which was controlled by Apichart, Siam Indica in the past won auctions that rival rice exporters claimed were not transparent.
Apichart was sentenced in 2014 to three years in jail after being found guilty of embezzling 20,000 tonnes of rice worth 200 million baht that was to have been delivered to Iran.
Amlo secretary-general Chaiya Siri-amphankul said on Friday that the asset seizure decision was linked to corruption charges by the National Anti-Corruption Commission against former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and 20 others.
They were accused of faking a government-to-government rice deal and reselling state-owned grain to domestic firms with close ties to the Yingluck Shinawatra administration.
"The evidence and traces of the money transactions found that the firms and persons were corrupt by producing fake government-to-government rice contracts," Pol Gen Chiya said.
"The investigation contains grounds that their assets were acquired in violation of money laundering laws and thus they must be seized."