Legal Measures for the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Case Study Religious Organization of Temples

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide the clear, appropriate and effective legal measures for the prevention and suppression of money laundering by using temples as the way of money laundering. In the present day, religious activities are being introduced into the pursuit of business interests called “Buddhist Commercial”. Merit is becoming a commodity by creating the beliefs that merit makes life better. Because of the measures on the supervision of temples and temples’ properties are unclear, lax and inconsistent with the change of social, economic and political context and Thai Anti-Money Laundering Act does not cover the investigation of temple transactions make related parties with the temples or the criminals used the temples to money laundering sources for cover up or change the money derived from the crime to become lawful money in various ways. As it appears, it is public in many cases.

The study indicated that the main factor that made temples are the way of money laundering is the power to monitor the transaction of the temples because the temples are not formulated as the definition of the professions under Section 16 of Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999). Therefore, the temples do not report the transaction to the Anti-Money Laundering Office(AMLO) thus AMLO has no power to directly investigate the transaction of the temples. In addition, the lack of clarity in the laws about the property management of temples, which set the rules in a broad way and not prescribed to inspection, reporting, public disclosure, liability and penalties ,are another factor supporting the temples being used as the ways of money laundering. There are 2 major problems of the prevention and suppression of money laundering by using temples as a way of money laundering. One is the problem in monitoring the transaction of the temples. Because of the temples are not designated as an agency that is required to report the transaction. Accordingly, AMLO is difficult to access the data for monitoring suspicious transactions of temples and the related parties and it also can not prosecute the offender who committed the predicate offenses and money laundering offenses. Another problem isthe asset tracking related to the money laundering offenses. It is difficult to monitoring the criminals’ financial traces as well as proving the sources of money or properties related to the offense because of AMLO lacks of the information related to the transaction of the temples. The Officials cannot seize or attach money or properties related to money laundering and cannot return money or properties back to the realm or true owners. It also causes damage to the economy of the country as well.

Therefore, it is proposed to amend Section 16 of Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999)by defining the temples including all types of religious organizations in Thailand, which are juristic persons, are the professions under Section 16shall have the duty to report any transactions to AMLO when it is carried out in case of money or properties donations exceeding the legal limit or is a suspicious transaction. The authority or representative of the temples have a duty to undertake donors due diligence, require all donors to identify themselves prior to conducting any donation, record the donation’s facts and keep all the necessary documents for inspection. This will solve the problems of the prevention and suppression of money laundering by using temples as the way of money laundering, increase efficiency in the enforcement of Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999). Moreover it also helps to maintain Buddhism as well.