A 35-year-old woman has been arrested in Thailand for blackmailing Buddhist monks, causing the expulsion of nine abbots and monks.

Wilawan Emsawat has been accused of blackmailing Buddhist monks with whom she had forbidden relationships, and obtaining large sums of money for silence. Investigators found that the woman earned about 385 million baht in three years, most of it spent on gambling. The scandal broke after an abbot left the monastery because of blackmail. The Thai authorities have begun tightening laws to restore confidence in Buddhism.