Monk's bank accounts suspicious, Amlo says

The controversial monk caught on tape riding in a private jetliner has numerous "financial irregularities," the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) revealed on Tuesday.

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A screengrab from the famous YouTube video of monks in a private jet.

'Jet-setter' monk linked to money laundering

King-oua Laohong

Phra Wirapol Sukphol – better known as Luang Pu Nen Kham Chattiko

The controversial monk caught on tape riding in a private jetliner has numerous "financial irregularities" - such as 10 of 16 bank accounts belonging to him and aides that have more than 200 million baht in constant circulation, the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) revealed on Tuesday.

Amlo banned the monk and his associates from transferring any assets until suspicions of money laundering are cleared up.

Amlo said it inspected 16 bank accounts belonging to the monk, Phra Wirapol Sukphol – better known as Luang Pu Nen Kham Chattiko – and his close associates.

Phra Wirapol is a senior monk at Wat Pa Khanti Tham temple in Si Sa Ket's Kanthararom district.

The 34-year-old high-profile monk held 10 bank accounts, six of which had deposit transfers of two million baht or more, Amlo deputy chief Suwanee Sawaengphol said.

The accounts were circulating more than 200 million baht in total, with significant movements of currency almost every day, making them suspicious, Pol Capt Suwanee added.

"I want to warn Luang Pu Nen Kham’s network and Luang Pu himself that they don’t move assets shown in the bank accounts because doing so will immediately fall into the category of money laundering.

“If the money has been used to buy cars or an airplane, such assets will be illegal too, according to money laundering law, and they will be confiscated,” she said.

“Even though Luang Pu can claim that the money has been voluntarily donated by members of the public, if the money was obtained by exploitation of people’s faith through fraud and scams, they are also illegal under the money laundering law.”

Amlo could not confirm yet whether the alleged money laundering was related to any illegal drug business, as claimed in some media reports, she added.

A Bangkok Post artist mocks Luang Pu Nen Kham Chattiko and his luxurious lifestyle in a cartoon published in the newspaper on June 22.

The Amlo deputy chief said her reports of the 200-million baht figure included only commercial banks’ cash transaction reports. By law, banks must report any transaction of 2 million baht or more to Amlo. She said there were no reports yet on transfers of lesser amounts.

Based on evidence gathered so far, said Pol Capt Suwanee, it was "obvious" that Luang Pu Nen Kham and what she called the monk's inner "network" appeared to have violated the money laundering law, as a consequence of public fraud through several projects. She cited construction of a hospital, and a project to build the world's biggest replica image of the Emerald Buddha, and said each of these projects had resulted in the opening of bank accounts.

The plans may have deceived people into donating money, she said.