Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) is empowered to investigate money stashed away illegally in offshore havens.

It’s not necessarily so that the money kept in the firm in question is illegal, but “good people may not understand why some people use the services of a foreign firm to keep their money,” he said. The so-called Panama Papers reportedly disclosed a list of 21 Thai nationals who used the services of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca to conceal assets overseas. They include influential businessmen, bankers and other well-known figures.

Thai authorities have started investigations to see if Thai nationals have been involved in tax invasion, money laundering, tax evasion or other financial crimes in connection with the Panama Papers.

Wissanu, who oversees AMLO, said he has not yet received reports from AMLO about the names of Thai citizens possibly involved.

He said it was important to know how these people took such amounts of money out of the country. “To use the services of the firm to store the money is not considered money laundering unless the sum is illegally acquired. In that case, it can be called money laundering.”

He said that such money may not have been directly sent from Thailand, but possibly remitted from somewhere else first. “If so, there is something unusual,” he said.

Thailand is a member of an international anti-money-laundering grouping and has in the past been praised for efforts to curb the practice. AMLO will be responsible for investigation of possible money laundering in this case. The maximum penalty is a life sentence and confiscation of the ill-gotten assets.

PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has vowed to take legal action against wrongdoers, while responsible agencies were waiting for official documents before they proceeded with legal action. Meanwhile, Mana Nimitmongkol, secretary-general of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, said it was still unclear whether the Thai nationals mentioned in the leaked documents were involved in corruption or any illegal activities.

The activities in question took place in foreign countries and Thai laws have no jurisdiction over them.

“Thai laws are different from those of the United States, which require the citizens to pay taxes for income wherever they work or do business,” he said. He called for the government to conduct a thorough investigation to find the original source of the money of both private individuals and former politicians and government officials who are mentioned in the leak.

For politicians and officials, authorities concerned should jointly probe whether they abused their power in order to get the money.

He also called on the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and AMLO to investigate possible money-laundering by tracing back whether the 21 people in question had notified the BOT when they sent the money out of the country. If they did not notify Thai agencies about the movement of their money, they should be suspected of involvement in money laundering.