Wat Phra Dhammakaya and its abbot Phra Dhammachayo played no part in the alleged 12-billion-baht embezzlement scandal at the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative, the former chairman of the board and key suspect Supachai Srisupa-aksorn said on Friday.
At a brief press conference at a Bangkok hotel, Mr Supachai insisted he had not embezzled money from the cooperative to donate to Wat Phra Dhammakya and the abbot as alleged.
He said he had donated 386 million baht to the temple and another 248 million to abbot Phra Dhammachayo between 2009 and 2010 to support the religion, and the donations came from loans he took out from the Klongchan cooperative.
He claimed he had followed the cooperative’s loan regulations and proper procedures, and had already repaid the borrowed money. He cited the cooperative’s annual audit as evidence of his loan repayments.
He said his donations had not been made in secret to Phra Dhammachayo. He put his cheques inside an envelope which he placed inside another, golden bag before giving the donation to the abbot. Like other followers wanting to make donations, he had queued up to donate the money, with temple staff collecting the bags containing the donations.
Mr Supachai claimed Phra Dhammachayo did not know the size of the donations he made to him and the temple.
He stood firm on his assertion that Wat Phra Dhammakaya and the abbot had nothing to do with the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative scandal.
He admitted he had previously served as the temple’s caretaker. However, the temple was not aware that he served as chairman of the board of the cooperative at the time, said Mr Supachai.
He stop short of saying exactly why he paid the cheques to the abbot, saying only that it was a personal matter and he just wanted to fund a religious building. He said money from his business had been used to repay the loans to the cooperative.
Mr Supachai spent less than five minutes at the press conference before hurriedly leaving the venue.
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has summoned Phra Dhammachayo and other monks from the temple for questioning.
The temple and the monks are accused of receiving more than one billion baht from suspects in the 12-billion-baht Klongchan embezzlement case, and will have to attend the DSI in person rather than sending lawyers to represent them.
The DSI issued the summons on Tuesday evening in response to prosecutors’ instructions.
The prosecutors want DSI investigators to expand their inquiries to include 878 cheques worth 11.3 billion baht that were paid by the co-operative when Mr Supachai was board chairman.
According to the DSI, Mr Supachai allegedly also withdrew about 1.9 billion baht in cash from the cooperative. Of the cheques, 15 worth more than 800 million baht were paid to Wat Phra Dhammakaya and the abbot Phra Dhammachayo.
