Thailand’s Criminal Court approved arrest warrants on Thursday afternoon for actress and former Miss Thailand Panadda “Boom” Wongphudee and her husband, Atip “Got” Anantawan, as police investigate whether money donated to her charity was diverted for personal use. Economic crime police sought the warrants after tracing money moved out of the Ongkorn Tham Dee Foundation, also known as the Do Good Foundation, which Panadda chaired.
Panadda faces three charges, according to several news sources: public fraud, money laundering and offenses under the Computer Crime Act. The fraud charge centers on whether people were persuaded to donate for charitable purposes that weren’t fulfilled. The computer crime charge relates to whether false information was posted online to attract donations. Atip faces a single charge of jointly laundering money, police said.
Panadda spent Thursday evening at her home in Bangkok’s Nawamin area with her lawyer. He told reporters she wouldn’t flee, was ready to enter the legal process and hoped the court would grant her temporary release. Local media reported that officers planned to carry out the arrest on Friday morning.
Once she’s in custody, investigators are expected to question her before a court decides whether she should be held or released on bail. The head of the Central Investigation Bureau, which oversees the economic crime unit handling the case, has said she’ll be treated like any other suspect.
Police allege that donations intended for people in need, including flood victims, were moved out of the foundation and into personal accounts linked to the couple. Thai media reports citing investigators put the sums involved in the hundreds of millions of baht, although the figures reported so far vary. Officers have frozen 17 bank accounts holding about 60 million baht. Family assets reported to be worth more than 100 million baht, including houses and land, have also been seized or frozen.
The case drew public attention in October, when a donor who runs a popular Facebook page filed a complaint with police. The complaint questioned whether donations had helped pay for a pool villa project in Phuket.
Panadda has denied knowingly doing anything wrong and has blamed her husband. On Tuesday, she filed her own complaint accusing Atip and a construction contractor of defrauding the foundation of about 50 million baht. Atip has said he acted alone and is ready to take responsibility for anything he did wrong.
Police aren’t convinced by her account. The commander of the Economic Crime Suppression Division has said investigators don’t accept that she was deceived, because as chairwoman she was responsible for the foundation’s finances.
Panadda has apologized to donors, saying she may have trusted the people around her too much. She has offered to use her own assets to cover losses if she’s found responsible. The foundation has suspended her as chair and stopped accepting donations.
The Interior Ministry, which regulates foundations, has opened its own review of the foundation’s finances. On Thursday, its Department of Provincial Administration also filed a separate police complaint, saying the foundation had asked the public online to donate to flood relief without the permission Thai law requires for such appeals.
Some donors, including prominent public figures, have begun demanding an accounting of the money they gave.
The case has struck a nerve partly because of Panadda’s public standing. She won Miss Thailand in 2000 and built a long career as an actress and television host before becoming one of the country’s most visible charity figures, known for delivering aid in person to communities hit by floods and other disasters. In 2025, she was appointed as a spokesperson to counter Cambodian fake news during the border conflict.
The next steps are expected to move quickly, with an arrest, formal questioning and a court ruling on bail. Police say the wider investigation into the foundation’s financial records and the people connected to its operations is continuing. The Interior Ministry’s separate review also means the foundation’s fundraising and spending will remain under official scrutiny beyond the criminal case against the couple. For donors who gave believing their money would reach people in need, the final answers will come from the courts.
