Thailand's finance ministry sued its abdicated king for 6.27 million baht in 1939 and won an order freezing everything he owned

Prajadhipok abdicated in England on 2 March 1935. On 17 July 1939 the Ministry of Finance sued him and Queen Rambai Barni in the Civil Court in Bangkok. It said he had moved crown property into his private property and claimed 6,272,712 baht and 93 satang with interest. The same day it asked the court to seize all their assets. The Civil Court refused. The ministry's witnesses, Luang Kat Songkhram and Luang Damri Itsaranuwat, testified that the Privy Purse accounts showed the payments came from the crown property account. They said the former king had asked Prince Kamphaengphet to propose ways to send crown funds abroad, including life insurance with a foreign company. The Civil Court called this hearsay, because the ministry produced no accounts. The ministry tried again. On 10 July 1939 the former king had sold a plot in Suan Dusit for 5,000 baht to a minor prince living in his Sukhothai Palace, who resold it four days later for 4,000. On 12 July his agent tried to sell eight more plots for 128,320 baht to the brother of his own property manager. On 21 August 1939 the Appeal Court reversed the Civil Court and ordered all the couple's assets attached before judgment, finding them worth less than the claim. Prajadhipok died in Surrey on 30 May 1941 and was cremated at Golders Green. In 1949 the queen brought his ashes home to Bangkok. The final judgment in the suit is not confirmed here^†.