The Supreme Court has upheld the lower court ruling imposing a 20-year jail term on a Dutch man who, together with his Thai ex-wife, laundered 300 million baht made from overseas marijuana sales through Thailand.
Johannes Petrus Maria van Laarhoven, 59, was found guilty of 15 counts of wrongdoing and originally received a 75-year prison sentence. His wife, Mingkwan Kaen-in, 37, was found guilty of colluding in the money laundering and given an 11-year sentence.
In consideration of their testimonies, the court commuted Laarhoven's sentence to 50 years and Mingkwan's to seven years and four months.
Laarhoven's jail term was then further reduced to 20 years, which is the maximum period of imprisonment for money laundering.
The pair had earlier denied the charges, but Laarhoven’s claim that he obtained the money legally failed to convince the judges.
Laarhoven and Mingkwan were arrested by Thai police with the help of Dutch authorities on July 23, 2014 during a raid on their home, which was located near a golf course in Chon Buri's Sattahip district.
The officers impounded their land, eight copies of their title deeds, five luxury cars, and the rest of their valuables, worth a total of 100 million baht.
The pair saw their cases proceed to the Court of First Instance in 2015 and the Court of Appeals in 2017.
Laarhoven claimed that he obtained the 300 million baht, which was transferred to the pair's bank accounts in Thailand, from the sale of four coffee houses in the Netherlands. However, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no evidence to support his claim because 300 million baht was too large an amount to be generated by a coffee business.
The judges found that Laarhoven transferred the drug money to Thailand via Germany, Luxembourg and Singapore in 15 instances and later made 28 separate withdrawals.
According to the court, the cash was used to buy various properties in order to conceal its source.