A woman has been charged with extortion in Thailand after allegedly recording herself having sex with Buddhist monks and then demanding money to support her lifestyle.
Wilawan Emsawat, 35, known as Sika Golf, is accused of blackmailing senior monks at popular temples in several provinces, as well as money laundering and receiving stolen goods, the Bangkok Post reports.
Police said they had uncovered a cache of some 80,000 sexually explicit pictures and videos involving multiple senior monks at various temples across the country on devices found at her home.
One video shared by police shows a monk reclining on Emsawat on a sofa before she slaps him on the head.
Five mobile devices were said to contain clips and stills of her engaged in sexual acts with several monks, some of whom were still wearing their traditional orange robes, according to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB).
Emsawat was arrested on Tuesday at her home in Nonthaburi province.
Police sources told the Bangkok Post that Emsawat was the wife of a local politician who left her after learning that she phoned lovers at night and received donations given to the monks that they re-gifted to her.
She was reportedly renting a ‘luxury house’ for 30,000-40,000 baht (£687-£916) per month, and would hire a ‘luxury car’ to travel to temples to polish up her image, according to local media.
Authorities understand that Emsawat would form close relationships with monks before demanding money to keep the details private. She is believed to have raked in almost £9million by allegedly blackmailing religious figures with footage of her encounters.
Wilawan Emsawat is accused of blackmailing Buddhist monks for millions of pounds
One video shared by police shows a monk reclining on Emsawat on a sofa before she slaps him on the head
In an interview on the show Hone Krasae, Emsawat said she first fell in love with a ‘married’ monk in her native Phichit province in 2013. She said he bought her a Mercedes Benz for three million baht (£68,848), 3 Plus News reports.
She said the monk had people at a temple transfer money to her and even gave her a credit card. The monk would allegedly come to visit her, but they never started a formal relationship, she said.
Emsawat claimed to have started dating another monk she met on Facebook around 2018, before having sex and falling pregnant.
‘At first, I didn’t believe it myself, but I didn’t have sex with anyone except’ the monk she claimed, as reported by 3 Plus News.
‘Our relationship was not a threat. It was a relationship like a couple. It was not forced,’ she said, adding: ‘But I admit that everything happened because of me. I did something wrong.’
A child was said to have been born in 2019 and ‘the matter ended when he gave me some money’. She claimed to have raised the child by herself for two to three years before asking him for help.
‘We agreed on what to do because I couldn’t handle it anymore. In 2021, he agreed to give me only 100,000 baht [£2,294.94] per year, and we didn’t have a relationship at all. We didn’t see each other much, it was hard to contact him. I didn’t want to have him. He didn’t seem to love me,’ she told Hone Krasae.
She told the outlet she was raised in poverty by her single mother, who earned just 8- baht a day (£1.84).
‘She grew up in hardship, which made her grow up not afraid to use various methods to survive,’ the outlet summarised.
Pol Col Anek Taosuparp, deputy commander of the Crime Suppression Division, said that Emsawat has denied the charges of ‘infringement of freedom’, claiming that she only borrowed money and asked for cooperation, not coercion, MCOT.net reports.
Matters came to a head after Phra Thep Wachirapamok, the abbot of Bangkok’s Wat Tri Thotsathep Worawihan temple, suddenly renounced his monkhood and vanished across the border into Laos in June.
The 53-year-old monk had allegedly been in a secret relationship with Emsawat, who claimed to be pregnant and demanded a huge £179,000 from him. When he refused to pay, she exposed their affair to fellow monks and he fled the country in disgrace.
Wilawan Emsawat, 35, known by the nickname Sika Golf, is accused of being involved in secret relationships with 13 monks, as well as money laundering and receiving stolen goods
Emsawat was arrested on Tuesday at her home in Nonthaburi province
Emsawat was arrested on Tuesday and was initially held at the Central Investigation Bureau in Bangkok before being moved to the Central Women’s Correctional Institution for a 12-day detention.
Police Major General Charoonkiat Pankaew, who is leading the investigation, said his team is now meticulously reviewing video evidence to identify ‘monastic unchastity’.
The authorities are trying to bring in all former monks who have been disrobed to provide information to help the case.
One monk has admitted that Emsawat had gifted him a car during their secret romance, but said that things turned sour when he discovered she was also involved with another monk.
When he confronted her, she allegedly began blackmailing him for money.
Investigators on Thursday objected to granting bail, citing the many victims in the case, the scale of damages and concern she might attempt to flee, the Thai outlet Daily News reports.
The accused did not submit a request for bail.
The case has rocked Thailand and brought into focus perceived corruption within the temples.
Prayut Prathetsena, vice-president of the Dharma Army Lawyers Foundation, told Thai PBS that many temples are rich in cash and assets, managed by senior monks.
Monks earn money for leading private Buddhist ceremonies, she explained, and do not pay taxes on their earnings, ‘so their wealth simply accumulates’. Temples receive state funding, and some monks earn fortunes from selling temple amulets.
She explained that ‘it is not unusual for a senior monk to have 50 million baht (£1,147,958) in his personal account’ – in a country where the average wage is around 16,000 baht (£367.35) per month.
‘Neither the donors nor the monks are really at fault. The blame mostly lies with the system,’ Prathetsena told the outlet.
Ms Emsawat was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly filming herself have sex with Buddhist monks
Police said on Tuesday that Emsawat had received around 385mn baht (£8,842,541) over the past three years, and had lost most of it gambling.
One charge related to money laundering from a case in which she is alleged to have received 380,000 baht (£8,700) from Wat Chujittharam in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, Thairath reports.
A wat is a type of Buddhist temple.
A former abbot is reported to have admitted that he had initially transferred a total of 12.8mn baht (£293,877) from his own account before using the temple’s bank account to send a further 380,000 baht (£8,700) because, she claimed, she needed money to invest in a ceramics business.
Police also revealed that Emsawat has also been charged with fraud over an old complaint from a former director of Buddhism in Phichit.
Pol Col Taosuparp said the former director lent 400,000 baht (£9,200) to Emsawat, who claimed she needed the money for medical treatment, citing a relationship with a senior monk in Phichit.
The CSD is also prosecuting Emsawat for the alleged extortion of 8,000 baht (£180) from a former assistant abbot working in Chachoengsao province.
Since police seized Emsawat’s phones, some monks have confessed to being involved in long-standing affairs with her – a violation of their sacred vow of celibacy. All are now expected to be derobed in accordance with Buddhist laws.
Phra Khru Srirattanawichian, a monk at Wat Tha Bua Thong, admitted making a mistake in talking to Emsawat and transferring money to her.
He said that the money did not belong to the temple, but believed it to nonetheless bring ‘bad karma’. He said he would find a temple to derobe him on Thursday, Thairath reports.
‘In the past, I ordained as a monk and did my best. But from now on, when I derobe, I will perform my duties as a layman and continue living my life,’ he said.
‘However, I would like to confirm that I have never given any temple money to Ms. Golf. Every time the temple event is held, I pay for it myself because the temple does not have a budget.’
‘If you ask whether I had sex with Ms. Golf, I did not. We only talked,’ he clarified.
A committee in the senate has now called for sex with monks to be made a crime, but the proposal has angered those who say that men should be held responsible for their own actions.
‘The scandal exposes a system of lies and hypocrisy among top monks,’ Sanitsuda Ekachai, a columnist for the Bangkok Post, wrote.
‘Women have long been depicted in mainstream teachings as ‘enemies’ of monks’ spiritual purity… and now, when the clergy’s moral decay is in full view, it’s the woman who takes the fall while the monks are cast as victims.’
Wilawan Emsawat was arrested on Tuesday
She was initially held at the Central Investigation Bureau in Bangkok before being moved to the Central Women’s Correctional Institution for a 12-day detention.
The scandal has triggered soul-searching across Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist nation, where monks are expected to live in humble purity. Critics say the institution has lost its way.
Respected columnist Ekachai wrote: ‘Monks must ask themselves: Why did they enter monkhood? For spiritual training, or to climb the social ladder and gain wealth and power through the saffron robe?
‘This is structural rot rooted in a clergy strong on authoritarian control but weak on monastic discipline. It’s the bitter fruit of a system that has drifted far from the Buddha’s path.’
The case has sent shockwaves through the Buddhist world and raised urgent questions about transparency, discipline, and the growing cracks beneath the surface of Thailand’s religious elite.
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