A commercial bank manager accused of colluding with a senior financial officer of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in embezzling about one billion baht from the KMITL has been arrested.
Songklod Sriprasong, 40, manager of Bank of Ayudhya’s Big C Srinakarin branch, was wanted on a court warrant issued on Monday for colluding in the embezzling and falsifying official documents.
He was apprehended at his house on Soi On Nut in Bangkok, according to a highly placed source at the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) police.
During police interrogation, Mr Songklod claimed he had been forced by Amporn Noisamrit, head of KMITL’s financial division, to transfer money from an account operated by the institute to her account.
He denied receiving any money from the woman, but police were not convinced by his remarks, Thai media reported on Tuesday.
Mr Songklod and Ms Amporn, 56, have been accused by the KMITL of embezzling money from the institute after about one billion baht was found to have disappeared from its accounts. The institute said the theft happened between 2012 and 2014.
Police believe there might be more accomplices in the case and they are investigating.
The alleged embezzlement was exposed after KMITL acting rector Monai Krairiksh assigned a lawyer to file a complaint with the CSD on Dec 16, seeking action against those involved in alleged corruption involving 80 million baht.
The institute later discovered that the total amount of money missing from its accounts was just over one billion baht from 2012 to this year.
Pol Col Jeerapop Puridetch, acting chief of the CSD’s sub-division 1, said evidence has so far implicated at least two people – Ms Amporn and Mr Songklod - in the embezzlement case.
According to the investigators, Ms Amporn had told a KMITL committee on Oct 1 that the institute’s money deposited with the Bank of Ayudhya’s KMITL branch received only a small amount of interest. She proposed that the money be transferred to the bank’s Big C Srinakarin branch, where Mr Songklod served as manager.
She had sought approval from the panel to withdraw 50 million baht from the institute’s account to buy a cashier cheque for deposit at Bank of Ayudhya’s Big C branch, and later another 30 million baht to the same bank.
The institute later found that there was no money in the new bank account. Ms Amporn had claimed the money had been instead deposited with Siam Commercial Bank’s Big C Suwinthawong branch .
However, thorough checks found the two bank accounts, at Suwinthawong and Srinakarin branches, had been falsified by Mr Songklod, who had allegedly doctored the figures.
The institute had checked all its money deposited by the finance division at various commercial banks from 2012 to this year and found about 1,075 million baht was missing.
Pol Col Akkradet Pimolsri, acting CSD chief, said on Tuesday that he had ordered investigators to accelerate the probe to bring those involved to task. As the case had caused damage to the education institute, anyone found to be involved would not be spared from legal action, he said.
A source said Mr Songklod was a former manager at an SCB bank branch but was expelled. After the embezzlement scandal came to light, he had been absent from work at Bank of Ayudhya’s Big C Srinakarin branch for one week before he was arrested.
Ms Amporn is said to have received medical treatment at a hospital in Bangkok and is under a close watch by police
Former KMITL rector Thawil Puengma said on Tuesday that he is ready to be investigated, and believes there might be an organised gang involved in the scandal.
He insisted he found no irregularities in the institute’s account when he served as its rector in 2012. All money withdrawn required approval from three people – the rector, a deputy rector and the head of the finance division.