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The 2016 Investigation and a Fugitive Former Abbot

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The 2016 Investigation and a Fugitive Former Abbot

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Beginning in 2016, Thailand's Department of Special Investigation opened a probe into a nationwide credit union embezzlement scheme, later joined by separate money laundering allegations, both reaching the temple's own former abbot. During a highly publicized police search of the temple in 2017, the former abbot fled and has remained a fugitive since.

The Department of Special Investigation's inquiry extended to a charitable foundation affiliated with the temple. Its chief stated in a report published 3 December 2018 that prosecutors would seek court confiscation of about 13 billion baht in assets held by the foundation, a prosecutorial target figure for one affiliated entity rather than a settled valuation of the temple's own total wealth. Separately, the money laundering charge against the fugitive former abbot concerned accepting embezzled funds valued at around 32 million pounds sterling, about 40 million US dollars, as reported during the February 2017 search.

Nearly everything publicly known about these matters comes from the Department of Special Investigation's own statements and the court proceedings that followed, rather than from any public account the temple or its former leadership has offered on the record. The temple itself continues to operate; the investigation into its former abbot remains open, and he remains a fugitive.

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