Monk played stock market with failed credit union funds?

Monks cannot even touch money according to ancient rules. Latest news has monks speculating on stock market with funds from failed credit union using lay nominees.

RELIGION, MONEY & CRIME

Monk played stock market with failed credit union funds?

16/03/2017
King-oua Laohong

A former Dhammakaya abbot is said to have used funds from the failed Klong Chan credit union to play the stock market.

That is apparently what one finds when one follows the money trail (audit trail) of the Dhammakaya temple's financial transactions.

According to the monastic code of conduct (Pali: Patimokkha) Buddhist monks are not supposed to even touch money, much less gamble in the stock market, so this is a surprising revelation (see here & here).

WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?

Prosecutors allege that Phra Dattajivo, former acting abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, used about 1 billion baht received from the Klongchan Credit Union to invest in and to manipulate the stock market, using nominees.

Kachornsak Buddhanuphap, senior prosecutor at the Department of Investigation of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), said on Thursday that examination of past financial transactions revealed the money trail.

MONKS INVESTING IN STOCK MARKET? 

Phra Dattajivo had other monks and lay people invest about 1 billion baht when he was acting abbot of the temple from 2010 to 2016, according to authorities.

Evidence clearly showed that the money had been transferred from Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative  by Supachai Srisupa-aksorn, the senior prosecutor said.

LAY NOMINEES USED TO HANDLE MONEY ON BEHALF OF THE TEMPLE

Supachai is a former chairman of the credit union while at the same time being treasurer of Dhammakaya temple and close aide to Phra Dhammajayo, the founder and former abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, clearly a dangerous conflict of interest that any competent auditor should have caught.

Supachai was sentenced to 16 years in jail after he confessed to embezzling more than 10 billion baht from the credit union's members.

"Although Phra Dattajivo did not use his name in stock trades, it is believed that groups of people and businessmen acted as nominees who both invested in and manipulated shares," Mr Kachornsak said.

"Donations from the Klongchan cooperative were not transferred to the temple at all."

"Wat Phra Dhammakaya has only about 100 rai of land. Many of the buildings and land plots were not given to the monastery," he said.

PROBE INTO DHAMMAKAYA'S ROLE IN STOCK MARKET

Public prosecutors would question Phra Maha Boonchai Jaruthatto, who supervised the financial affairs of the temple, officials of the Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the brokers who had handled the stock investment by Phra Dattajivo's nominees, Mr Kachornsak said.

On March 8 Phra Dattajivo was stripped of his monastic rank for spending the temple's money on the stock market and providing refuge for Phra Dhammajayo, a suspect wanted for money laundering and receiving stolen assets in connection with the Klongchan embezzlement.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crime/1215782/dhammakaya-monk-played-stock-market-with-kcuc-money

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