Former Palang Pracharath Party member Samart Jenchaijitwanich has claimed that approximately 100 million baht, which he and his mother received from iCon Group CEO Waratphol Waratvorakul and another executive, was a combination of loans and charitable donations from the executives.
Samart was arrested in Chiang Rai yesterday and was returned to Bangkok to be questioned by officials from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) today.
Pol Maj-Gen Yutthana Praedam, DSI director-general, told the media that Samart has denied extortion and money laundering charges and offered to submit a statement in his defence within 15 days. His mother has also denied the charges, he added.
Both suspects were escorted to the Criminal Court this afternoon, to seek court approval for further detention.
The DSI chief said officers will question Klod Sethanand, a top executive of the iCon Group currently being held in Bangkok Remand Prison, about the 100 million baht reportedly transferred in tranches to Samart’s mother’s account since 2021. About 2.5 million baht was allegedly given directly to Samart by Waratphol, he added.
Regarding the charitable donations claimed by Samart and his mother, Yutthana pointed to the suspicious pattern of payments, noting that the donations were made on a monthly basis, ranging from 100,000 baht to several hundreds of thousand baht.
He also said that, when the donations were wired to the bank account of Samart’s mother, they were subsequently transferred onward to Samart’s bank accounts in an attempt to avoid detection, which is classified as money laundering.
