Mrs Rojana Sinthee to face money laundering charge

Money laundering charge will be brought against Mrs Rojana Sinthee, a C8-level education official, accused of allegedly embezzling over 88 million baht from Sema Pattana Chewit Fund for poor students.

Anti-Money Laundering Office secretary Mr Wittaya Nititham disclosed on Monday that AMLO officials had discovered that money in 22 bank accounts used to store money suspected to be embezzled from the Fund had all been withdrawn in February alone.

He said AMLO officials would try to track the money whether they were used to invest in property or spent on something to avoid detection, adding he didn’t believe these were done by a single person.

The main focus of AMLO investigation is to trace the money trail from its original source to the end source and to take legal action against those implicated in the alleged money laundering, said Mr Wittaya as he warned that the offence carries a maximum imprisonment of ten years.

He said investigation by AMLO officials was making progress and he expected a full report within a month.

Meanwhile, Pol Lt-Col Siripong Sritula, director of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Division, said that he men were trying to sort out documents to check Mrs Rojana’s connections with the other individuals.

The more important point, he said, is to find out whether there are any officials who are more superior than Mrs Rojana who were involved in the alleged embezzlement of students’ fund.