Former Buddhism Office directors’ homes searched amid corruption allegations

Officers armed with search warrants raided homes associated with Phanom Sornsilp and Nopparat Benjawattananan, both former directors of the Buddhism office.
The searches followed allegations that people in the office had collaborated with temple administrators around the country to short-change the office on financial subsidies granted for temple maintenance and repairs.
CCD officers searched Phanom’s house in Nakhon Pathom’s Samphan district on suspicion that he’d become “unusually rich” while serving as director.
It is alleged that he bought shares in a cooperative and had accumulated a quantity of gold bars.
The National Council for Peace and Order – the military junta – evoked Article 44 of the interim constitution to remove Phanom from his position in February, saying he had failed to take action against the controversial Dhammakaya Temple.
He was transferred to an inactive post in the Prime Minister’s Office.
At the home of Nopparat’s mother-in-law in Nonthaburi’s Bang Bua Thong area, CCD officers confiscated a safe to examine what it contained.
Nopparat moved to the United States about a month ago, reportedly leaving behind “five or six” wives.
The house searched on Thursday belongs to the mother of his latest wife. It was unoccupied, since the mother-in-law left for the US at about the same time.