Mind of the renowned Nakhon Pathom church allegedly used the money to gamble
PUBLISHED: 15 May 2025 at 14: 01
A 70-year-old bishop who was suspected of stealing$ 300 million from a well-known Buddhist temple and using it for playing turned himself in to Bangkok police on Thursday just as they were about to make a warrant for his arrest.
At 10am on Thursday morning, Phra Thamma Wachiranuwat, the governor of the Wat Rai Khing in the province of Nakhon Pathom, showed up at the Central Investigation Bureau ( CIB ) for questioning.
The Crime Suppression Division was earlier informed of a report that money was being allegedly being squandered from the church, according to a senior police source.
Eight weeks of plainclothes police investigation were conducted at the church. They discovered that the priest had transferred funds from the temple’s bank account to his personal profile. The money was finally transferred to a woman’s profile where she was suspected of using betting sites as a representative.
Over the past five decades, about 300 million baht have been transferred from the temple’s consideration to the abbot’s accounts, according to authorities. Additionally, investigators discovered monetary transactions involving gambling sites and the abbot’s accounts worth at least 500 million ringgit.
The priest began taking out loans from senior monks at various temples as little money was remaining in the temple’s reserves. According to sources, the calls frequently included six or seven-digit amounts.
The officers requested an arrest warrant at lunchtime on Thursday, and the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct circumstances, that is when they approved the request. In his capacity as a provincial Buddhist official, the abbot was accused of wrongdoing and misappropriation while working as a government official.
Aranyawan, the person involved in the case, was detained last year on suspicion of having an alleged connection to the gaming website Lagalaxy911. She was eventually released without parole.
Thais and immigrants who make visits to the 100-year-old Wat Rai Khing in the Samphran city of Nakhon Pathom visit frequently to the temple and offer blessings.