A prosecutor and several others filed lese majeste complaint against the Secretary-General of the Office of the Under Royal Graciousness for embezzling money through a false royal project.
According to Nation Channel, Peuk Lerdswangpong, the head of the Rubber Holder Co-Operatives Federation of Thailand, two other individuals, and a prosecutor on Friday filed lese majeste complaint against Chainarin N., the Secretary-General of the Office of the Under Royal Graciousness, and 13 other associates.
The prosecutor said to the Crime Suppression Division officers that Chainarin and 13 other associates falsely claimed about a royal project for personal economic benefits.
He accused Chainarin of asking nearly a hundred of high ranking public administrators and businessmen to participate in a program called ‘Pillar of the Kingdom’, in which an individual participant was charged up to 100,000 baht (about 3,050 USD).
The program was organized in May 2014.
Most participants, such as Jeerasak Sukontachat, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Labor, Gen Worapong Sanganetra, the deputy commander of the Thai Army, and Charun Inthachan, the president of the Constitutional Court, were led to believe that the program was a part of the royal initiative and had to pay expensively to join.
The prosecutor and others presented many documents as evidence.
Earlier on 17 November, Lt Col Burin Thongprapai of the military’s Judge Advocate General’s Office and other military officers conducted a search on the Office of the Under Royal Graciousness and arrested Chainarin for the lese majeste allegations.
According to ASTV-Manager Online, the arrested was made after M.L. Somlab Kritiyakorn, the former Secretary-General of the Office of the Under Royal Graciousness, filed lese majeste complaint against Chainarin.
According to the official website of the Office of the Under Royal Graciousness, it is an umbrella organization founded by Somlab and other members of the Kritiyakorn family since 2011. It was established to give support and implement royal initiatives in accordance to the king’s speeches usually delivered on his birthday.
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