Amlo orders Bt13m freeze in rice pledges
The Anti-Money-Laundering Office (Amlo) has ordered Bt13 million in pledges of rice farmers to be seized from a rice mill in Phichit.
Amlo secretary-general Seehanat Prayoonrat said the money would be used to assist rice farmers who were victims of the mill’s alleged cheating.
Farmers in Phichit pledged four months of their rice with the company, L-Gold Manufacture, as part of the government’s pledging scheme, but the company did not issue any certificates to them.
The freeze follows a request to do so by the Marketing Organisation for Farmers, which asked the provincial court to freeze the rice in the company’s silo. Many farmers are affected by the company’s actions and deserve to be compensated, Seehanat said.
An Amlo committee resolved on Thursday to seize 553 sacks of milled rice and 1,120 tonnes of rice paddy in the silo of L-Gold Manufacture rice mill.
In a separate case, Seehanat said the committee resolved to seize 61 pieces of land in Nakhon Ratchasima, worth more than Bt25 million, allegedly acquired through embezzlement. The case involves former executives of the defunct Bangkok Bank of Commerce, which approved loans to the City Trading Corporation.
Meanwhile, the committee has also frozen money in the bank accounts of Sitthikorn Boonchim, aka “Sia Oud”, who has just completed a five-year jail term for embezzlement in the case related to the production of Phra Somdet Nua Hua Buddha image amulets. However, the accounts can only be frozen for 90 days while investigators seek evidence to back their case.
