He added that no one had so far claimed ownership of the gang’s seized assets worth Bt150 million.

Dusadee’s comments related to a previous finding that an unnamed female politician allegedly wired Bt46 million to Wichai’s bank account in 2012, suspected to be for the alleged money-lending business and its money-laundering activities.

As for some 1,000 state officials whose initials were found on the gang’s list of alleged kickback payments, Dusadee said that 165 names deemed to have links to the gang had been submitted for Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, in his capacity as head of the National Anti-Corruption Centre, to consider further action.

The other names would be submitted to the centre later, he added.

The group linked to Wichai allegedly had a revolving fund of Bt4 billion, a network of 2,000 moneylenders and 86 franchise branches lending money to about 170,000 borrowers across the country.

The network allegedly charged annual interest fees of up to 300 per cent and employed “helmet gang” debt collectors to harass overdue borrowers.

The DSI has issued two arrest warrants – one for Wichai and the other for Chaiwuth Wiwattanaareekul, who was allegedly the gang’s website administrator and is already in custody.