GLO never sold lottery tickets to accused academic

Government lottery vendors at the Talad Thai market in Pathum Thani. The Government Lottery Office has denied it reserved a quota for a former chairman of the Chulalongkorn University Savings Cooperative Assoc Prof Sawat Saengbangpla (inset) as he claimed. (Main photo by Pongpat Wongyala)

The Government Lottery Office (GLO) said on Monday it never had any special quota of lottery tickets for Assoc Prof Sawat Saengbangpla, the former chairman of the Chulalongkorn University Savings Cooperative wanted for an alleged 1.4-billion-baht public fraud.

GLO director Chalongrat Nak-arthit told the media that Mr Sawat, aged 79, was not on the GLO's list of vendors and those with the right to order tickets in advance.

People should never believe an invitation from anyone to invest in specially reserved lots of government lottery tickets, Maj Gen Chalongrat warned.

The GLO printed 71 million tickets for each draw. Of these, 40% went to individual vendors, who receive five lots of 100 paired tickets, and to about 900 organisations, foundations and associations of people with disabilities.

These dealers must sign fresh contracts with the GLO every six months.

The remaining 60% went to the people who placed orders through Krungthai Bank, and each of them could order only five lots.

About 60 people recently complained to police that Mr Sawat had lured them to invest in a separate savings cooperative, saying their money would be used to buy ticket quotas and promising a 1% return per month from resale of the tickets.

Police found that about 160 people had been drawn into the scheme, which had reportedly been running since 2010, and had lost about 1.4 billion baht when Mr Sawat suddenly disappeared.

There is an arrest warrant out and immigration police have been alerted to keep a watch for the elderly academic, whose bank accounts show a balance of only 5,000 baht, in case he tries to leave the country.

Police spokesman Krisana Patanacharoen said on Monday that investigators believed he was still in Thailand.

The Cooperative Promotion Department on Monday said Mr Sawat had not run a lottery cooperative, and it never registered such a cooperative.

It also said the issue had no impact on the Chulalongkorn University Savings Cooperative, which has about 16,000 members, current assets worth 8.8 billion baht and liquid assets of 220 million baht.