The Anti-Money Laundering Office will seize 64 rai of seaside land worth 4 billion baht in Phuket from landlord Panthong Na Ranong after it was found to be part of a forest reserve.
The land, covered by two title deeds, is near Freedom beach in tambon Karon of Muang Phuket district, AMLO secretary-general Seehanat Prayoonrat said.
AMLO's transaction committee made the decision on Wednesday to take the land as it was part of the forest reserve of Nak Kerd mountain and the title deeds were clearly illegal, he said.
The transaction committee is authorised to examine assets and transactions involved in wrongdoing.
The AMLO also ruled that government officials had been bribed to issue the deeds. One deed covers 45 rai of land and the other 19 rai. The AMLO's action responded to a complaint from southern conservationists.
Mr Panthong, 69, had reportedly applied for the title deeds in 1989, but officials had rejected the request because the land was part of the forest reserve.
About two decades later he successfully reapplied for the deeds as land officials reinterpreted aerial photographs and concluded that people had used the land before the declaration of the forest reserve.
Mr Panthong was an adviser of the New Aspiration Party and reportedly intended to sell the land for resort construction.