AMLA Section 48 — Provisional seizure or freezing of property

Anti-Money Laundering Act

พระราชบัญญัติป้องกันและปราบปรามการฟอกเงิน · B.E. 2542 (1999)

The Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999) makes money laundering (Section 5) an offence by reference to a list of predicate offences (ความผิดมูลฐาน) in Section 3, and is administered through the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), a government agency established by Section 40. Financial institutions must report cash, high-value and suspicious transactions (Section 13); listed professions and businesses must report cash and suspicious transactions (Section 16); and customer identification and due diligence apply to both groups (Sections 20 and 20/1). Tipping-off is prohibited (Section 21/1, penalty in Section 66). Property connected with an offence can be provisionally seized or frozen (Section 48) and, on the public prosecutor's petition to the Civil Court, forfeited to the State (Sections 49 and 59). The monetary reporting thresholds are set by ministerial regulation, not in the Act. The Act can reach other finance-related businesses through the ministerial-regulation limb of the definition of financial institution in Section 3, limb (6).