Mr. Witthaya Neetitham - Assistant Secretary General cum Spokesperson of the Anti-Money Laundering Office of Thailand (AMLO) - said that the Transaction Committee of the agency issued a decision at meeting No. 2/2026 on February 11 to transfer the cases to the procuracy.
This move comes after considering petitions requesting the cancellation of temporary detention and freezing of assets of relevant parties.
He said that the committee found insufficient grounds to conclude that the seized and frozen assets were not related to criminal acts.
On February 17, AMLO Secretary General Thepsu Bavorchotidara directed officials to transfer the case file to the procuracy units at the Special Complaints Department under the Office of the Attorney General of Thailand to request a court order on the recovery of state assets. The four cases have a total estimated value of 13.074 billion baht (about 420 million USD).
After that, prosecutors filed a petition to the Thai Civil Court requesting an order to confiscate assets for the state. After reviewing evidence during the investigation, the court found reasonable grounds to believe that assets related to criminal acts could be transferred, sold or disposed of in many other ways.
Therefore, the court issued an order to temporarily seize and freeze assets until further order according to Article 55 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law of 2542 (1999), authorizing the AMLO Secretary General to confiscate or freeze, protect assets and notify relevant parties.
Details of the 4 cases are as follows:
The case involves Tangthai, also known as Yim Leak, Wirinya, Ben Smith, Kattriya. On February 26, 2026, the court ordered the temporary confiscation and freezing of assets worth about 12.123 billion baht (390 million USD), in accordance with the asset list submitted by AMLO to the prosecution.
Case related to fraud boss Chen Zhi and accomplices: On February 25, 2026, the court ordered the temporary confiscation and freezing of assets worth about 345 million baht (11.1 million USD).
Case related to Kok An and accomplices: On February 25, 2026, the court issued an order to temporarily confiscate and freeze assets worth about 560 million baht (18 million USD).
Case related to Uea-angkun and accomplices: On February 24, 2026, the court ordered the temporary confiscation and freezing of assets worth about 46 million baht (1.48 million USD).
If assets confiscated or frozen in these 4 cases are not suitable for storage or will burden the government, such as cars or yachts, the AMLO Secretary General may order an auction and the collected money will be kept instead of the assets under Article 57, Clause 2 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law.
In case the victims of criminal acts are identified, AMLO will collect evidence according to the law and transfer the case to prosecutors to petition the court to return or compensate the victims from the confiscated money or property instead of ordering them to be handed over to the state, the spokesman added.
