Former Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative chairman Supachai Srisupa-aksorn bought land with embezzled money and sold it to the daughter of property tycoon Anant Asavabhokin, chairman of Land and Houses Plc, according to the Justice Ministry.
Dusadee Arawuit, deputy permanent secretary for justice, said on Friday that Mr Supachai had used cheques drawn on the credit union's funds to buy a total of 41 rai of land (about 65,600 square metres).
After he faced embezzlement accusations on April 19, 2013, he sold eight blocks of land to Alisa Asavabhokhin, Mr Anant's daughter, on June 7, 2013, ostensibly for 298 million baht.
After the sale, Mr Supachai had not returned any money to the cooperative. His actions were seen as money laundering, Pol Col Dusadee said.
The deputy permanent secretary also said the sold blocks of land were, rather strangely, not adjacent to one another, but were separated, alternately, by nine plots of land that Mr Supachai owned together with other people.
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) would convene meetings with Miss Alisa and the other people who shared land ownership with Mr Supachai and question them, Pol Col Dusadee said.
It was reported the land plots are next to Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Pathum Thani province. Mr Supachai is a former treasurer of the temple and now a prime suspect in the 12-billion-baht embezzlement case concerning the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative.
Pol Col Dusadee had ordered the DSI and the Anti-Money Laundering Office to examine all land sales by Mr Supachai from 2009 to 2013. Officials found some land plots registered in the name of Sathaporn Watthanasirinukul, a former monk at Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the deputy permanent secretary said.
The DSI is waiting for Phra Dhammachayo, abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, to show up and answer questions about the alleged channelling of funds embezzled from the biggest credit union cooperative in Thailand to his temple and its monks, including himself.
