Crime and Corruption.

An intriguing combination of the two is part of the story dominating the headlines this week.It is still very much an ongoing thing so I can only give a brief background to the story to date .A large house was broken into in Bangkok last week, the police were immediately on the job and apprehended a gang of 7 men, recovering the stolen property, which included 200 million baht cash in a zipper bag .The house belongs to the Permanent Secretary at the Transport Ministry in the previous Abbhisit government .Khun Supoj Saplom .The said leader of the gang who is from Udon has fled the country , but police think he will know the source of such a large sum of money .In the meantime the current Deputy Prime Minister Khun Chalerm is alleging in Parliament that he knows the money originated from corruption on the Bang Yai-Bang Sue railway electrifying project .Of course the suspect is denying all knowledge and is going to issue a defamation law suit. .Apparently when the police get the Udon guy back from his "holiday', apparently he is rather well known, they expect to get to the bottom of the story. An added twist today is that investigators have discovered another large sum of money deposited at various banks here , which has been seized .A link that gives a part of the story .
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... corruption

Of course Jack it is a highly politicized story but I attempted to portray it in a 'A' political manner, without bias either way, so you didn't have to jump to defend your particular colour shirt . In actual fact to me it proves that there are "no angels" regardless of allegiance . I was more interested in how far these so called politicians will go to protect their"perks". If the result is as I anticipated that the robbery was organised by another MP because he didn't get his share , then indeed the dogs are eating dogs. Sort of makes your anti Mr T attitude look rather futile. All those persons crying foul when kicking the ref as hard as they can! This clip may explain in a bit more detail .
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/514 ... kickbacks/

Sorry Jack. You have not deleted a political statement , just a factual one . try harder .

From what i understand, following this story on Thai TV every night, the burglers says there where more then 1000 000 000 bath in the house but......they could only carry out around 200 miljon. If that is the true story it should be very intresting to see the outcome of the investigation cause this huge sum of money can not belong only to one people and that can be said whitout pointing any political fingers! So.....this can be a real triller.....

Just a little more info which now names the alleged leader who police reckon can throw more light on the origin of this money and why the house owner underestimated his loss by 14 million .
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 70660.html

Now there talking of 200 million or more . Wow
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... upoj-house

Reading this thread, I thought that I would check up on the latest Anti-Money Laundering legislation in Thailand to see if it may have some relevance.

I came across this article on the “ThailandBusinessNews” website:

New Anti-Money Laundering Regulations in Thailand
By Aishwarya Gupta - Wed, Oct 5th, 2011

From August 25, 2011, all commercial banks are required by the Ministerial Regulations issued by virtue of the Anti-Money Laundering Act to identify and verify, and maintain copies of, the identities of customers, and to report certain types of transactions as required by law. In some cases, banks will be required to request additional information from the person conducting the transaction, including the identity of the beneficiary.

New Anti-Money Laundering Ministerial Regulations Implemented

Examples of common transactions where additional information may be required are as follows:


Any cash transaction worth two million baht or more is required to be reported to AMLO.

A transfer conducted at a branch counter where a walk-in customer sends cash to an account at another bank, and the amount is 50,000 Baht or more for ORFT or BAHTNET (see the table below for more information), the bank is required to verify the customer’s identification for each transaction by requesting a copy of the customer’s ID or passport. If the amount is 100,000 Baht or more, the beneficiary’s ID number will also be required.

Please note that if the customer refuses to provide the requested information, the bank will be unable to proceed with the transaction for the customer.

Banks’ reporting obligation in relation to transactions under the law shall apply as follows:

1. Transactions that are electronic fund transfers or electronic payments involving cash worth one hundred thousand baht or more are subject to AMLO’s reporting requirements. Note: Bill payments involving cash worth seven hundred thousand baht or more per one payment are subject to reporting requirements.

2. Transactions involving an asset worth five million baht or more are subject to AMLO’s reporting requirements.

3. Transactions that are money transfers or electronic payments involving a movable asset worth seven hundred thousand baht or more are required to be reported to AMLO.

There is a table in the original article which should be of interest to a number of members as it gives the amounts of various types of transaction which require disclosure by the banks; the original article and table can be found here:

http://thailand-business-news.com/banki ... n-thailand

Well BKK Bank Udon, ( 154 Prajak Road) are not requesting this extra information for transfers over 100,000 etc, as I have used this several times in the last few months. all they took was a copy of the passport, which is done every time.

My internet banking is also allowing this to be done.

I was reading in th4 Nation today FROQ is being investigated for buying 2500 plastic and fiber glass boats, for 2.5 mil, from a short time hotel owner. That would seem to be worth investigating. Can't post the article but it's there today.

Short time Hotel owner with love boats ,whatever next,free condoms handed out, due to no electricity to keep the randy buggars in check, priced at 500 baht each and charged to the Government under miscellaneous necessities

Actually Pompui, they did hand out the condoms ages ago. is that why u drove down there to get a freebie ?

Now then, could these plastic boats, that were bought, be part of the Emergency Response plan for a certain gentlemen who didnt trust banks and needed to wash some cash in his laundry before fleeing the terrible floods

having followed this corruption case in fact two of them, the burglary and now the boats, one is drawn to a simple conclusion, is it me or is it that at last Thais now realise that the powers that be are in fact skimming off millions of their money and they ( the people ) actually don't like it any more.

Not that i expect great things from the Police who are as bent as the politicians they are allegedly prosecuting, so for a final outcome of this story you would have to read the very very small print on a page in an local newspaper cos no way would they trumpet the result out loud for everyone to know.