The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has tied financial transactions by executives of the scandal-hit The iCon Group to the mother of a politician, with a total value of 100 million baht.
At present 18 executives of the direct sales company, allegedly involved in public fraud and a pyramid scheme, are in detention including its CEO Warathaphon Waratyaworrakul.
DSI spokesman Pol Capt Surawut Rangsai said Wednesday the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) uncovered about 10 million baht in transactions from the mother of a politician whose name begins with S.
She was a government official at one point, and the transactions took place from 2021-2024.
The transfers from the politician's mother to Mr S were worth almost 100 million baht, even though the mother did not work and was elderly.
"Some money was transferred by Boss Paul [Mr Warathaphon] and Boss Peter [Klot Sretthanan], executives of the iCon, to the mother's account," he said.
The DSI would find out if other company executives transferred money to the account.
He said the DSI questioned the 11 male executives of The iCon at Bangkok Remand Prison yesterday. A letter was sent to Witoon Kengngan, lawyer of the iCon Group executives, to join the interrogation.
Pol Capt Surawut said the lawyer had sought an extension of another 15 days to submit documents to counter the charges. The DSi gave him an initial time frame of 15 days and he has already extended it to Dec 3.
"We want them to complete the process by Dec 3 so the DSI can conclude the case and send it to the public prosecutor. If they want to provide additional information after that, they will have to submit it to the public prosecutor instead of us," he said.
Mr Witoon told reporters that Mr Warathaphon did not intend to sue politician S, but the Office of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission has expanded its probe to prosecute the politician. He said the money was for making merit.