US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK2013

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FIGHTING TERRORIST FINANCING IN THAILAND

Identifier: 05BANGKOK2013
Wikileaks: View 05BANGKOK2013 at Wikileaks.org
Origin: Embassy Bangkok
Created: 2005-03-18 09:31:00
Classification: CONFIDENTIAL
Tags: EFIN PTER ETTC KTFN TH Terrorist Financing
Redacted: This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L BANGKOK 002013 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EB/ESC/TFS, EB/EPPD, S/CT. IO/PSC 
TREASURY FOR OASIA AND OFAC 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/18/2015 
TAGS: EFIN, PTER, ETTC, KTFN, TH, Terrorist Financing 
SUBJECT: FIGHTING TERRORIST FINANCING IN THAILAND 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 32688 
     B. 04 BANGKOK 6573 
     C. 04 BANGKOK 1533 
     D. 03 BANGKOK 7909 
     E. TD-314/52952-04 
     F. TD-314/09719-05 
     G. TD-314/03144-05 
     H. TD-314/46202-04 
 
Classified By: ECONOMIC COUSELOR M. DELANEY FOR REASONS 1.4 B&D 
 
 
1. (S) The following responds to reftel A questions regarding 
RTG efforts to combat terrorist financing: 
 
(A) The RTG has not seized, frozen or forfeited any assets 
under UN Security Council resolutions 1267 or 1373. The Thai 
Anti-Money Laundering Act of B.E. 2542 (1999) makes "offenses 
related to terrorism" one of eight predicate criminal 
offenses and establishes a system for seizure and forfeiture 
of such assets. Regulations require all bank transactions 
above Bt 2million (US$52,140) or any "suspicious activity" to 
be reported to the Anti-money laundering office. This 
requirement is being extended to any enterprise that deals in 
large volumes of cash. 
 
(B) Thailand has thus far not co-sponsored any designations 
of terrorists to the UN 1267 Committee, preferring to act in 
unison with other ASEAN countries. This is unlikely to change. 
 
(C) There is excellent cooperation between U.S. and Thai law 
enforcement and intelligence agencies and many Thai officials 
have received U.S. training.  The RTG is amenable to 
additional training but has not identified any particular 
areas in which they feel they lack capability. 
 
(D)" Medium". While the banking system is now sufficiently 
automated so as to track names and patterns of suspicious 
activity, there is a high incidence of large cash 
transactions in the economy in general. The RTG is aware of 
this problem and attempting to deal with it by adjusting 
regulations and working with informal money exchanges, gold 
and diamond dealers and used car dealers. 
BOYCE 

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