AMLO seeks law to block funding for weapons of mass destruction

AMLO chief Pol Colonel Sihanart Prayoonrat said yesterday that FATF, an inter-governmental body, would send in a team next February to see if Thailand’s financial institutes and anti-money laundering law were up to par internationally. Hence, he said, it was necessary for Thailand to push through legislation on the prevention and suppression of financial aid toward the production of mass destruction and the sale of equipment required for manufacturing such weapons. This draft law is currently at the public-hearing stage, he said. 

Thailand also needs to get tough on financial institutes and get them to adopt international measures on checking on transactions, he said. “If we are unable to improve our standards as required by the FATF, then there’s a risk that Thailand will be blacklisted as a country with high levels of money laundering again, which will seriously affect Thai financial institutions’ transactions,” Sihanart added.