Suspect in KMITL case nabbed
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Man wanted in institute's embezzlement case arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport
POLICE YESTERDAY apprehended Kittisak Matthujad, a key suspect in the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Lat |Krabang embezzlement case, after his flight from London, where he had been in hiding, landed early yesterday at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Royal Thai Police chief Pol-General Somyot Poompanmoung said it was not Kittisak’s intent to surrender himself, and Thai police learned of his flight to Bangkok through exchange of information with British police, and initiated the arrest. There is an extradition agreement between Thailand and Britain, but Somyot said that was a process that would take a long time.
Police reject accused’s claim
Somyot said police dismissed Kittisak’s initial statement that he was not aware that the money had been embezzled from KMITL, but thought it was a friendly loan by Songklod Sriprasong, former head of a Bank of Ayudhya branch who is now in custody in the same case.
“It is highly unusual for a lender of hundreds of millions of baht not to feel intuitive about the source of such a large amount, without repayment periods specified or a single reminder ever made,” Somyot said.
Speaking later to reporters, Kittisak said he had been feeling uneasy about his mother’s health and had been spending money running a few businesses and punting on soccer gambling.
“I see myself as an investor who is seeking money from financiers. But now I am not proud of myself, because I am having an unhappy ending, for not knowing about the source of the money in the first
place,” he said. A senior investigator, Pol Colonel Kornchai Khlaikhleung, said Kittisak told him that Songklod wired him Bt100 million to Bt200 million on several occasions and that he never returned a single baht, contrary to Kittisak’s claims that he gave Songklod back some Bt10 million.
About Bt1 billion in total was wired to Kittisak in the first few years after the embezzlement began, before it became known late last year, police say.
Kornchai said the “Boss” cited as the mastermind behind the KMITL case, which saw around Bt1.6 billion stolen, was not Songklod.
“I have all the information on this, but cannot reveal it now,” he said without elaborating.
Four accounts associated with KMITL’s financial affairs have been linked with the embezzlement, three of Siam Commercial Bank and one Bank of Ayudhya, at Big C Srinagarindra branch in Samut Prakan, of which Songklod was a former manager.
