The world’s richest king, his mysterious fortune and Thailand’s protesters who want answers

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn is carried on a palanquin during his coronation in Bangkok in 2019. One of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s first major acts was to transfer all the holdings in the vast company, known as the Crown Property Bureau, to his personal ownership, giving him control of more wealth than the reported riches of the Saudi king, the sultan of Brunei and the British royal family combined. “One of the top things that people think about is how can the monarchy accumulate such really high wealth and we don’t really know anything about it.” Questions over spending by an aloof monarch, whose expensive lifestyle stands in contrast to stories of his thrifty father, have emerged as Thailand’s economy reels from the COVID-19 pandemic, which followed years of tepid growth under a military-led government closely tied to the ruling family. In July 2017, nine months after he assumed the throne, a law passed by the military-dominated parliament placed the Crown Property Bureau’s assets “under His Majesty’s discretion,” ending the previous arrangement under which the monarch could spend the bureau’s income at will but left buying and selling decisions to the board of directors. The last category includes the U.S. government, which for decades has rented the ambassador’s residence — a stately, blue-shuttered mansion surrounded by lawns — for just “a few hundred dollars” a month, Joehnk said.