The Criminal Court has ordered the recovery of 56 million baht swindled by a former section head of the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) convicted of graft, according to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
The order, which stemmed from the conviction of Wasawat Kittithirasit by the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases in September 2022, was only made public by the NACC yesterday.
Wasawat previously served as head of the temple maintenance section at the NOB. The court convicted him of corruption and ordered that the 56 million baht in his possession be seized on Sept 27 last year.
Niwatchai Kasemmongkol, the NACC secretary-general, said the case began when the NACC found Wasawat to be unusually rich while directing the temple maintenance and development section of the NOB.
The commission later decided to seek his indictment with prosecutors and sent the case to the attorney-general, who subsequently ordered the indictment at the Criminal Court.
The court had ordered the 56 million baht he acquired by allegedly abusing his position be seized by the state.
Financial details disclosed by the NACC yesterday showed that the majority of the cash had been kept in several bank accounts, mostly at Krungthai Bank.
The biggest account to be seized has 11.9 million baht in it. Others at the same bank contained anything from 2 million baht to 9.2 million baht.
The seizure order also applies to some accounts belonging to Wasawat at other banks, including the Government Savings Bank and Thanachart Bank.
Also to be confiscated from Wasawat is 5.7 million baht he received from monks, as well as over a million baht he used to purchase a pick-up truck and a house in Nakhon Pathom.
According to Mr Niwatchai, the court order was for the 56 million baht to be recovered in its entirety. If any of the money could not be seized, the authorities can put a lien on Wasawat's assets outside of the seizure list, foreclose on them and confiscate that money from the sale instead.