12th September 2026 – (Bangkok) A 47-year-old Thai woman once known as an elite-school cheerleader is at the centre of a Buddhist temple scandal after police linked her to a former Ayutthaya abbot accused of diverting tens of millions of baht in temple funds and keeping a sexual relationship inside monastic quarters.
Luang Pho Atichot, 66, the former abbot of the royal temple Wat Phutthaisawan in Ayutthaya, was arrested over alleged misappropriation and laundering of about 92 million baht — roughly HK$21.77 million. Investigators also say he had a long-running sexual relationship in a meditation room with devotee Punyavee Rungrueang, 47, nicknamed Ae. Thai coverage citing Amarin TV and social-media pages has filled in her background.
About 30 years ago she attended a top Thai school, made the cheerleading squad on the strength of her looks and physique, and was treated as a campus beauty. Friends and neighbours told local media she has one son and two daughters and has been a temple donor since 2007. An ex-husband allegedly cheated her of about 30 million baht, leaving her bankrupt. Roughly three years ago, after marital and family blows left her depressed, she began visiting Wat Phutthaisawan for spiritual comfort and drew close to the powerful abbot — a turn that Thai reports cast as the path from ruin to sudden wealth.
Police say the pair’s relationship intensified over the past two years. Ae secured privileges to run an exclusive stall inside the temple selling blessing, luck-changing and vow-fulfilment offerings, and ran an online proxy-worship service charging high fees, while also providing bank accounts that Atichot allegedly used to move temple donations.
Officers raided her mansion in Khlong Luang district, Pathum Thani, and seized a striking haul: 35 pure-gold Buddha amulets, gold bars and jewellery weighing about 1.4 kilogrammes — nearly 37 taels — plus cash of 3.59 million baht, about HK$850,000, along with bank passbooks, land deeds, investment papers and insurance policies.
After both were detained on 10th September and questioned overnight before transfer to a detention centre, Atichot first denied everything. Confronted with footage of the couple intimately together in the meditation room, he confessed, admitting the illicit relationship and financial dealings had lasted two years.
