Ex-Deputy Commerce Minister unusually rich, seeks seizure: NACC

NACC finds ex-Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Sarapol unusually wealthy, seeks court approval to seize assets worth nearly 20M baht held by family.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) ruled on April 25, 2025, that Poom Sarapol, former Deputy Minister of Commerce and former MP in 2011, is unusually wealthy. The commission has requested the Office of the Attorney General to file a petition with the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions to confiscate assets worth nearly 20 million baht deemed unusually acquired.

According to NACC Deputy Secretary-General and spokesperson Phuthep Taweechotthanakul, the total value of assets under scrutiny amounts to 19,947,750 baht, held under the names of Poom’s wife, Orn-anong Sarapol, and his two children, Poppol and Panida.

Among the assets are luxury vehicles and large cash deposits. These include a Volkswagen van worth 3.28 million baht, which Orn-anong paid for partially in cash, as well as deposits in various bank accounts held by Panida totalling over 4 million baht. Panida also sold a land plot in Sam Phran District, Nakhon Pathom, for 11 million baht, which had previously been purchased under suspicious circumstances involving cashier's checks.The investigation revealed that an individual close to Poom, but not a relative, had purchased cashier’s checks with cash to pay for a riverside land plot in Nakhon Chai Si District. The official land sale contract recorded a price of 3.5 million baht, yet the money trail revealed payments totalling 8.3 million baht. This land was later sold by Panida for 11 million baht. She also made a cash down payment of 880,000 baht for a Toyota Prius.

Further investigations uncovered deposits of 500,000 baht in Poppol’s bank account and documents showing land purchases worth 2 million baht in Khon Kaen under his name. However, the NACC ruled that certain assets, including payments made by Orn-anong for a Jaguar car and a portion of the Volkswagen van, totalling 2.85 million baht, were properly accounted for and excluded from the seizure request.

The NACC has submitted its full findings and evidence to the Office of the Attorney General. If the court agrees and the identified assets cannot be fully confiscated, the commission is seeking permission to seize other assets belonging to Poom within a 10-year window to recover the value.Poom Sarapol served in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and was also a former spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office and MP for Khon Kaen under the Pheu Thai Party. He was previously convicted in the rice-pledging scandal and sentenced to 36 years in prison, which was later reduced by royal pardons to eight years. He is scheduled to be released in August 2025.

The recent probe into Poom’s finances stems from the NACC’s broader investigation into the rice-pledging and government-to-government (G2G) rice sales schemes under the Yingluck administration. The investigation categorised wrongdoers into three groups: politicians, civil servants, and private individuals. Poom is the first in this group to be formally found guilty of illicit wealth accumulation and recommended for asset seizure.

(2025/04/25-00:00)