Dhammakaya defends land eyed for seizure
Land in Pathum Thani on which Wat Dhammakaya’s Boon Raksa infirmary is being built, which the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) had planned to seize at least temporarily, has already been given to the temple and thus become part of the its public area, the temple’s corporate communications office claimed on Wednesday.
The land is among eight properties that the Amlo’s transactions committee had resolved on Tuesday to seize for 90 days in relation to the agency’s investigation of the Supachai Srisupa-aksorn money-laundering case.
But, in Wednesday’s statement, the temple pointed out that Alisa Asavabhokhin, daughter of Land and Houses Plc chairman Anant Asavabhokhin, had formally donated the land to the temple on June 7, 2013. It was now officially “thoraneesong” – public temple grounds. The communications office said the infirmary building once completed would also be transferred to temple ownership.
The Amlo committee had decided to seize the eight properties registered in Alisa’s name in Klong Luang district’s Tambon Klong Sam as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering and embezzlement linked to the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative.
The agency determined that former Klongchan chairman Supachai, who had allegedly bought the properties with embezzled money, sold them to Alisa for Bt298 million in 2013 after being accused of embezzlement. None of the money was returned to the cooperative, the Amlo found.