The blacklisting of bank accounts of a son and a daughter of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will not yet be lifted pending further investigations, despite their clarification of money transfers already provided to the Department of Special Investigation, director general Tharit Phengdit said yesterday.
He said the DSI needs to further probe other money transfers possibly not yet reported by lawyers of Panthongtae and Pinthongta earlier this week to the department. The DSI needed to verify their lawyers' accounts and check with records of the Anti-Money Laundering Office about each and every money transfer to see both sides' details were consistent.
Tharit said the agency needed to thoroughly check the details before sending them over to the DSI. "The 83 people on the blacklist are not selected just because they have ties to the former premier or his family members, but because of suspicious money transfers involving their bank accounts," he added.
He said the DSI would not "lose face" if any of the 83 could defend their every money transfers questioned by the AMLO. "There must be at least one of them who can defend their money transfers," he added. Tharit repeated that anyone postponing a scheduled meeting with DSI agents had a 60-day duration to complete the mandatory explanations.
Commenting on news reports that former commerce minister Santi Prompat withdrew millions of baht in cash and kept it at home, Tharit said commonsense was to be practised in such a case, and declined to say how the DSI would deal with him following his explanations given yesterday.
There were many Pheu Thai MPs that met with DSI agents yesterday in various daily sessions, which would end next Monday.
Santi later said in a press interview that he wanted to safeguard his money so he withdrew his cash from bank accounts, in amounts up to Bt2 million three to four times, for fear that the money could be taken by the government.
Former minister Chaiya Sasomsab said he withdrew a total of Bt20 million to hold a birthday party, donate to a hospital and buy computers for a school. He said he needed to look for receipts to show them to the DSI.
MP Pracha Prasobdee said he paid Bt13.6 million through cheques for construction of a house, in addition to another large amount of money through credit cards and cash to buy construction materials in order to get promotional rewards in gold and electric appliances from a vendor.