Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council (APRC) News Release
Following the recent news release by the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (APRF) dated 25 July 2018, where Dr. Tej Bunnag, the APRF Chairman appointed the fact-investigating concerning the disappearance of fund from a certain company from overseas which had expressed its philanthropist intention to make donation to the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Foundation in order to support peace activities of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council (APRC), the committee, chaired by Dr. Sorajak Kasemsuvan, the current APRC Secretary-General has since met with the APRF Chairman twice to report on its findings.
The fact-investigating committee has reported to the APRF Chairman that it had acquired supporting evidence from July 2017 till June 2018 concerning a person who was, at the time an APRC paid executive staff (receiving monthly salary from the APRF) and had been assigned by the APRC Chairman, Professor Dr. Surakiart Sathirathai to coordinate directly with the said philanthropist company in China. The President of this company had met and agreed with the APRC Chairman in July 2017 to support the APRC peace work and activities, that an MOU between the company and the APRC should be signed and that the APRF should open an account under its name with a Chinese bank that has a branch in Thailand. The APRC Chairman requested the said executive to arrange to have the MOU signed in Beijing as soon as possible and asked the APRF Board Secretary to open an account under the APRF name with a branch of ICBC Bank in Bangkok. The said executive was also asked to pass on the APRF account details to the said company.
In November 2017, the said person sent a WeChat message to the secretariat staff of the said company stating that “it would be appreciated if the funds could be transmitted to the following account”. This was followed by a picture of an ICBC Bank account number opened under the name of a certain female. These bank account details were printed on an APRC logo paper. The message also indicated that this was an “account of APRC finance officer”. The message also explained that “according to new rules of Bank of Thailand all accounts must be under name of individual citizen, unless it is registered company or government entity” and that “rules still not clear for international body or foundation”.
The committee found that neither the APRC nor the APRF has ever employed anyone under the name of that female under whose name the ICBC account was opened. The committee found that neither the APRC nor APRF ever had any finance officer or any staff at all under the same name as the name on the account. Besides, the APRF account had already been opened with the ICBC Bank some time ago before the said WeChat message was sent. This means that, contrary to the information given in the said message, a foundation could open a bank account. Instead of passing on the APRF account number and details, the said executive passed on details of an account of some private person who had nothing to do with the APRF or the APRC, falsely claiming it to be an account of APRC finance officer. Furthermore, neither did the person arrange for the MOU to be signed in Beijing as asked.
Subsequently, the President Secretary of the said company made two overseas transfers of the total sum of US$ 15,000.00 to that said female’s account believing it to be transmitting this fund to the APRF bank account. This could be so believed because the address of the beneficiary that appeared on the Application for Funds Transfers (Overseas) was the address of the APRF. Copies of the application slips and the successful transfer slips of these two transfers in December 2017 are in the Committee’s possession.
To date, that sum of money has never been transferred from the said account to the APRF account. This means that at least on this occasion, the said company had been misled to transfer that sum of money to a private bank account believing it to be an account of APRC finance officer and judging from the WeChat message, this was a deliberate act of misleading on the part of the person who sent the account number to the company. The committee also had an interview with the President of the company and his secretariat staff and were told that a number of donations was also given in cash to the said APRC executive to support the APRC activities. But no such donation was ever received by the APRF or APRC.
The committee also found that while reporting to the APRC Chairman that the said APRC executive had been unable to contact the President of the said company at all since till June 2018, and that perhaps that company might have been blacklisted, the committee has been able to acquire some pictures taken after September 2017 that showed the said APRC executive standing with the President of that company as well as standing with the secretariat staff of that President on different occasions.
After almost a year of lost contact and not until 3 July 2018 where the APRC Chairman was able to regain contact and meet again with the President of this company in Beijing and was told by him and his secretariat staff of this series of incidents. The APRC Chairman was also told by the President that he and his staff had met with the said APRC executive on several occasions since July 2017 including in Bangkok during the time which the said executive told the APRC Chairman that he was unable to contact the President of the company at all.
Apart from interviewing several persons, the committee has sent a request both by a registered mail and Line chat to the said executive staff to kindly come to meet the committee and kindly provide the committee with the fact of what actually happened. The said person read the message but neither replied nor turned up on the given date and time. Instead, a message was sent to one of the committee members telling that committee member to dissociate with this committee which has no right to request an interview and accused that the APRC where the executive had worked and got paid for several years was a only fake organization!
The committee will now round up all the evidence and the summary of all the interviews in order to present its final report to the APRF Chairman shortly.
