Prayat Puangjumpa, a former deputy secretary-general of the National Counter-Corruption Commission (NACC), has been charged by the commission with being unusually rich, said Niwatchai Kasemmongkol, its secretary-general.
The move came after the NACC determined Mr Prayat had made a false assets declaration and shown his intention to conceal the origin of his assets. Mr Prayat has since been indicted in the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions.
Yesterday, Mr Niwatchai said Mr Prayat had now also been charged with amassing an unusual amount of money which he could not account for.
He is accused of having gained an unusual amount of wealth totalling 658 million baht.
According to the NACC probe, he omitted assets from his mandatory declaration to the NACC. The undeclared assets were found to be held by Mr Prayat’s wife, Thanipa.
These assets were divided into six items, four of which were overseas.
The two in Thailand were a Kasikornbank bank account with 10,000 baht in it as well as 20,000 shares in the Palm Biz Corporation worth two million baht.
The four overseas assets were three bank accounts kept at Bangkok Bank’s London branch with a total of £237,959.46 (about 10 million baht) in them and a townhouse on Kensington High Street in London worth an estimated £4.5 million.
His questionable wealth came to light after he declared his assets to the NACC as part of a mandatory procedure required from public servants.
The asset records however aroused the commission’s suspicions and the agency later launched a probe, according to Mr Niwatchai.
Four other state officials were also charged yesterday for being in possession of unusual wealth.