Phra Dhammachayo, the abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, has been ordered to report to the Department of Special Investigation to acknowledge charges of money-laundering and receiving stolen property in connection with the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative embezzlement scandal.
The summons was issued by Pol Lt Col Pakorn Sucheevakul, chief of the DSI's Bureau of Financial and Banking Crime. Phra Dhammachayo is required to report to the DSI headquarters on April 8 at 9am.
Pol Lt Col Pakorn said the action follows the submission of a petition to his bureau a few weeks ago. It charged Phra Dhammachayo with money-laundering and taking stolen property in accepting cheques drawn on the KCUC by people involved in embezzlement.
He said affected cooperative members sought prosecution against the recipients of 878 cheques from the cooperative and DSI interrogators and public prosecutors decided on Wednesday to issue summonses for the abbot and another suspect.
Phra Dhammachayo, 72, had received many cheques worth altogether 800 million baht and the sum had been channelled to partners of his temple in many provinces, Pol Lt Col Pakorn said.
The other suspect is Miss Sasithorn Chokeprasit who received cheques worth about 100 million baht.
DSI interrogators sent a summons to Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Pathum Thani province on Wednesday, he said.
Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said on the same day that the DSI suspected Phra Dhammachayo of conspiring in money-laundering and accepting stolen property because he had been named as the payee of cheques donated by Supachai Srisupa-aksorn, former chairman of the cooperative.
Damaged members of the cooperative were questioned at the DSI on Wednesday. Among them, Siwaporn Plengsaengsri said Phra Dhammachayo should return all the money because it belonged to cooperative members who kept their life savings at the cooperative and never intended to donate.
Phra Sanitwong Wutthiwaso, communication chief of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, later on Wednesday insisted on the innocence of Phra Dhammachayo. He said the abbot had accepted the donations like any monk would naturally do and had had no knowledge about the source of the money.
Followers of the temple had already raised about 600 million baht and gave the money to the cooperative as financial aid on the condition that when the issue is finalised, the cooperative will return the sum to the followers, the monk said.
He added that the previously received donations had already been spent on building religious buildings.
In early March the Criminal Court sentenced Supachai to 16 years in jail in one of seven cases connected to 12-billion-baht embezzlement at the once richest cooperative in the country.
