Wat Phra Dhammakaya's History 2016 (EP.2)

MostVENERABLE Phrathepyanmahamuni has been ordained as a Buddhist monk for over 46 years has performed virtuous deeds throughout his life. At the age of 72, he is now in the final of his life and his health is failing. Currently, he is being accused of money laundering and stolen property. All these accusations are baseless and demonstrate to the injustice being brought against him in several ways:

• It all began when Mr. Supachai Srisupa-aksorn, former chairman of Klongchan Credit Cooperative (KCUC) was suspected of laundering money from the credit union. wrote a total of 878 cheques to various people and organizations, of which 10 were to the Ven. Phrathepyanmahamuni. The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) had already investigated this matter with Ven. Phrathepyanmahamuni and their findings to the prosecutor. The prosecutor evaluated the case and opted to press charges against Ven. Phrathepyanmahamuni. Then suddenly, a new case with exact charges was filed, with Ven. Phrathepyanmahamuni being charged with money and receiving stolen property as well. This was a duplication of the previous and goes against the law that states: “One count of charge cannot be duplicated.”
• Money laundering and accepting stolen property technically occurs if Ven. intended to collude with Mr. Supachai Srisupa-aksorn to illegally money from KCUC for his own benefit. However, what actually transpired does not support the premise underlying these assumptions: Ven. Phrathepyanmahamuni the donations openly before a crowd of tens of thousands of people. He never the cheques. The temple’s financial department staff collected the donated cash and cheques, and deposited them into the bank, subsequently allocating them toward costs of religious facilities and various temple expenses as the donors had This information had been previously disclosed to DSI.
• The assumption is that Ven. Phrathepyanmahamuni colluded with Mr. Supachai to funds from the credit union. In truth, to do so, they would have had to conceal their illegal activity. Instead, the money can be clearly traced for every transaction, starting with the credit union cheques used as a form of “payment” for donations. Cheques for large sums like these would have certainly been subject to an audit, leading to significant non-liquidity within the credit union. Any person with mal-intent seeking to launder money would not have used such transparent methods.