Police will propose the seizure of more assets believed to be linked to the 1.4 billion baht embezzlement scandal at King Mongkut's University of Technology Ladkrabang campus (KMITL).
Seehanat Prayoonrat, secretary-general of Anti-Money Laundering Office, explains the 1.4 billion baht KMITL embezzlement to reporters in early January. Police will ask his office to freeze more assets allegedly involved in the crime. (Photo by Somchai Poomlard)
Investigators also plan to question the former rector again, because most of the money was stolen from the prestigous public university's bank accounts during his tenure.
Pol Col Nos Sawetlek, deputy commander of the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), said on Friday that he would send the list of 26 people who had received money transferred from the KMITL's accounts to the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo), so that the office could decide whose accounts should be frozen.
Early in January, Amlo seized assets worth about 100 million baht from parties suspected of being involved in the embezzlement.
Of the 26 people on the list, seven have still not reported to police for questioning in response to summonses.
The deadline is Jan 27. Police would issue the a second summons to them afterwards, and if they still failed to show up they would face arrest warrants, Pol Col Nos said.
He also said that police would call former KMITL rector Thawil Phuengma for the third round of questioning, because they had determined that a large amount of the missing money had been withdrawn from the KMITL's accounts in 2012 and 2013, when Mr Thawil was rector.
Police have not received deposit and withdrawal slips concerning the embezzlement case from Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), despite repeated requests. The deputy CSD commander quoted the bank management as stating it would need several days to dig out the old record in the database of the bank's headquarters.
Pol Col Nos said that police were trying hard to nail down three suspects in the case, namely Kittisak Matthujad, Sompong Sahaporn-udomkan and Tawatchai Yimcharoen. Police believed that Mr Tawatchai was still hiding inside the country, he said.