The Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative will need some 26 years to fully repay its embezzled members, who are a group of its creditors, the Cooperative Promotion Department said on Tuesday.
The timeframe was calculated based on the rehabilitation plan of the cooperative which involves borrowings to set up a fund to be invested for gains so it could repay the money to the members, said Phichest Wiriyaphaha, director-general of the department.
Earlier, Klongchan planned to borrow from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and Government Savings Bank but both state-owned banks turned it down, he said.
The banks claimed if they did so, they would need to set aside 100% loan-loss provisions for the lending as Klongchan was insolvent, he added.
Therefore, Klongchan would borrow from other cooperatives that were already its creditors. If successful, the fund should yield a profit of about 450 million baht a year. It had yet to conclude how much other cooperatives would agree to lend, he said.
Embezzlement caused damage totalling 15 billion baht for the once-richest cooperative. In March last year, a court order was issued for its rehabilitation. So far, 1.2 billion baht had been repaid to its creditors.
Mr Phichest said Klongchan had about 1 billion baht left in its accounts and some assets.
The embezzlement case was linked to fugitive Phra Dhammajayo, former abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya.
The 72-year-old monk allegedly received multi-million-baht "donations" from the former management of the cooperative. Its ex-chairman who was already in jail was a former treasurer of the temple.
Security authorities were laying siege at the temple in Pathum Thani province for nearly a month in order to arrest him.