The Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) is Thailand's "key agency responsible for enforcement of the

anti-money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictio ...

and the counter-terrorism financing law." It was founded in 1999 upon the adoption of the ''Anti-Money Laundering Act, B.E. 2542 (1999)'' (AMLA). AMLO is an independent governmental agency. It has the status of a department functioning independently and neutrally under the supervision of the minister of justice, but is not part of the

justice ministry A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in ...

. In 2016, Prime Minister

Prayut Chan-o-cha Prayut Chan-o-cha (sometimes spelled Prayuth Chan-ocha; th, ประยุทธ์ จันทร์โอชา, ; born 21 March 1954) is a Thai politician and retired army officer who has served as the Prime Minister of Thailand since he ...

ordered by the cabinet resolution change the command to under the supervision of the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

directly. The ''AMLO 2016 Annual Report'' reported 369 AMLO positions allocated, with 49 positions vacant, plus 30 government employee positions, with two vacancies. Its budget for FY2017 (1 October 2016 to 30 September 2017) is 374.1 million baht. As of 30 September 2016, the AMLO had custody of seized and/or frozen assets valued at 6,176,029,774.12

baht The baht (; th, บาท, ; sign: ฿; code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. SWIFT ranked the Thai baht as the 10th-m ...

. It conducted 12 asset auctions during FY2016, selling 910 items of assets for 57,893,949 baht. From 29 June to 14 August 2018 AMLO was headed by Secretary-General Police Major General Romsit Viriyasan. He was moved to an "inactive post" in the prime minister's office for failing to expedite politically sensitive cases. Pol Maj Gen Preecha Chareonsahayanon was named acting secretary-general.

Panama Papers

In April 2016, AMLO began investigating Thai nationals whose names surfaced in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

References

{{Government of Thailand Government departments of Thailand 1999 establishments in Thailand Anti-money laundering measures Corruption in Thailand Government of Thailand

Panama Papers

See also

References