The Department of Special Investigation is investigating five well-known families in connection with the 12-billion-baht Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative embezzlement scandal, a source said on Saturday.
The DSI has discovered that the former Klongchan chairman sold eight land plots allegedly bought with embezzled money to a daughter of property tycoon Anant Asavabhokhin.
Pol Col Dussadee Arayawuth, the deputy permanent secretary for justice, and Pol Maj Yutthana Praedam, a DSI specialist, revealed the probe after they had examined the title deeds to 41 rai of land in Khlong Luang district and surveyed the locations.
Pol Col Dussadee said Supachai Srisupa-aksorn, Klongchan's former chairman, allegedly used money embezzled from the cooperative to buy the eight land plots and then sold them for 298 million baht to Alisa Asavabhokhin.
Ms Alisa is the daughter of Mr Anant, the chairman of SET-listed developer Land & Houses Plc.
The DSI source said investigators were now preparing a list of people from five families with strong political connections found to have been linked to suspicious financial transactions carried out by Mr Supachai.
Investigators are trying to uncover how many plots of land the five families own, from whom they acquired the land, and when the purchases and transfers of the plots were made.
They also suspect several more plots were transferred by Mr Supachai to others to prevent authorities from seizing the land, the source said.
The five families suspected of having links to the Klongchan embezzlement have close ties to politicians and prominent business people who are the financiers of political groups.
The source said influential figures had approached Pol Col Dussadee and warned him to stop digging into parties possibly involved in the scandal.