DSI to probe U Bank commissions
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) will be digging deep into reports that a man earned 10-per-cent commission from all deposits made with the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative, which has been hit by an embezzlement scandal.
Kitikong Kanachan, who heads the DSI Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Narcotics Centre, said yesterday that Watchanon Nawa-issararak was paid an amount equivalent to 10 per cent of all deposits he brought to the cooperative.
The cooperative, which also calls itself the U Bank, is now struggling with cash-flow problems amid reports that more than Bt12 billion was embezzled.
Watchanon chairs the Ratpracha Credit Union Cooperative as well as the Ratpracha Group. Kitikong described Watchanon as a company executive who denied taking loans from Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative and defaulting on them.
“He claims his signatures in loan-related documents were forged,” Kitikong said, adding that Watchanon had already filed a police complaint against Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative chairman Supachai Srisuppaaksorn.
Kitikong said the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) had approved the auction of 309 of the cooperative’s assets that were frozen recently in relation to the embezzlement case. “The auctions are intended to boost the cooperative’s liquidity,” he said.
A source at AMLO said most of the frozen assets belonged to Supachai and another executive at the cooperative, who is a former vice-minister of Finance. The source said the Cooperative Promotion Department planned to remove Supachai from his post if he is unable to return the more than Bt12 billion that disappeared via default loans by the end of this month.
