{"id":61182,"date":"2026-09-11T11:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=61182"},"modified":"2026-09-11T11:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:04:22","slug":"buddhist-monk-arrested-in-suspected-3m-embezzlement-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=61182","title":{"rendered":"Buddhist monk arrested in suspected $3m embezzlement scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BBC:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thai police have arrested a Buddhist monk on suspicion of embezzling 100 million baht ($3m; \u00a32.2m) from his monastery, along with a suspected female accomplice he was filmed having sex with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phra Wachirayan Wi, a former abbot at the prominent 14th-century Wat Phutthaisawan in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, allegedly pocketed donations meant for the temple on more than 20 occasions over two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Thailand, Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy and also renounce material possessions. He was defrocked after his arrest. He has yet to comment publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The latest arrests come just over a year after another sex-and-blackmail case involving senior monks rocked Thailand&#8217;s monastic community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 66-year-old was known for creating a highly-coveted coin amulet. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul reportedly owns some of his creations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thailand&#8217;s Buddhist institution has long been plagued with reports of monks breaking their vow of celibacy, trafficking drugs and committing financial crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In July last year, police opened a hotline for people to report &#8220;misbehaving monks&#8221; after at least nine monks&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cjelg7q845zo\">were found to have had sex with a woman<\/a>. She then blackmailed them with photos and videos of the acts for nearly $12 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police on Friday said they identified two streams of money linked to donation receipts Phra Wachirayan had issued in the temple&#8217;s name \u2013 one was meant for temple renovations, while the other was payment for amulets and other sacred objects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC: Thai police have arrested a Buddhist monk on suspicion of embezzling 100 million baht ($3m; \u00a32.2m) from his monastery, along with a suspected female accomplice he was filmed having sex with. Phra Wachirayan Wi, a former abbot at the prominent 14th-century Wat Phutthaisawan in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, allegedly pocketed donations meant for the temple on more than 20 occasions over two years. In Thailand, Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy and also renounce material possessions. He was defrocked after his arrest. He has yet to comment publicly. The latest arrests come just over a year after&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61184,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61182\/revisions\/61184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}