Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing well the issue of so-called fake lawyers and there is sort of an intersection here with a Crackdown regarding nominees and things here in Thailand. I'm going to jump in here real quick. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Pattaya Mail, that's pattayamail.com, the article is titled: When high-stakes deals in EEC are shaken by "sworn declarations". 

Real quick before I jump into the thrust of this. For folks, I've had a lot of folks contact us and say, "I may not necessarily need to use your firm right now, but is there any way we can support you or whatever." One of the best things you can do, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. It's called Pancake Palace, as the name implies, it's breakfast anytime. It's not only breakfast, it's not only American breakfast, we do have an English breakfast on the menu, and we also have American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, buffalo wings. We've also got tacos; we've got grilled cheese sandwiches; we've got hot dogs, we've got Polish sausage, we've got Coke in glass bottles. If you're interested, you want to come on by, if I'm not in the office, oftentimes I'm in there so if you just want to shoot the breeze, happy to see you; links are in the description below. 

That said, getting back into this. So we're talking about this in the context of this anti-nominee crackdown that's going on in Thailand. Then on top of it we have got - and I've talked about this at length for some years now - continue to have this problem of all these fake lawyers in Thailand notwithstanding the fact that the legal profession is completely restricted from all foreigners, not just fake lawyers, it's the legal profession in Thailand. As I've discussed, the restricted occupations say what they say; I have put them up on screen before here on this channel and again it's a restricted field. Foreign nationals aren't supposed to even be operating in the legal sphere; Thai law is clear on that. 

That said, notwithstanding this, we still have to deal with these fake lawyers and the point of the thumbnail, there's a great - I love the movie The Dark Knight where Heath Ledger plays in my mind, arguably the most iconic Joker role. Now there are others who dispute this - Jack Nicholson and things - everybody that has ever acted that role sort of has a different take, but I feel like Ledger's is the most compelling, and there is a great scene where Batman and the Joker are talking and the Joker says, "don't talk like these people; you're not one of them; you're not like them. Their code, it's a joke, it's a bad joke. They'll drop it at the first sign of trouble." It's just a great, well-acted scene. Link is in the description below if you want to see the clip where I got the thumbnail from. 

But that's the point here, and the Pattaya Mail, the author in the Pattaya Mail is bringing up that point, that when you're dealing with these people and there's a problem, where are they when you need them, and quoting directly, again Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article: When high-stakes deals in EEC are shaken by "sworn declarations". Quote:

"Why should you be concerned?

Retrospective liability - Documents prepared by negligent advisors or those containing forged signatures are now "time bombs." They will inevitably trigger alarms during state audits.”  “Quoting further:  

Personal accountability When a case is exposed, the "fixers" - which is another word for fake lawyers in my mind - "who promised to handle everything often vanish," - again dropped at the first sign of trouble - "leaving the business owner and the Thai partner to face the charges of "filing false information to a public official" alone." 

Yeah, this is the thing. Look, I've been talking about this nominee crackdown for a while and people have said, "well aren't you worried about it?" No. We set up our stuff legitimately. Our clients that we've ever helped set up to do business here in Thailand, we have to do a lot of work. I mean quite frankly, here in our office, our accounting division and our compliance division, the paperwork is stacked up to keep everything in correct order. Look, Thai law in many ways is very precise when it comes to the issue of corporate compliance and ongoing taxation associated with ongoing corporate endeavours. So having a good law firm that actually knows what they are doing and is actually competent and is qualified and are genuine, is going to be a better situation for you in the event that there is some sort of: look, from time to time, various agencies, most of the time we deal with Immigration but it's not unheard of to hear from the Labour Department from time to time, the Revenue Department. We've dealt with Department of Business Development on many things over the years. Look, at the end of the day, regulatory and law enforcement they are there; they do their jobs. If it's a legitimate operation, there shouldn't be any issue with communicating with those sorts of authorities, and we've done it quite frequently over the years as and when it's been necessary. But again, these fly-by-night operators and these fake lawyers and charlatans, at the end of the day, if whatever structure they have set up for you is not legitimate and you end up having to speak to relevant authorities, where are they when 'that' hits the fan as it were. 

So it's something to think about and again there are a number of videos we're doing right now contemporaneously with this one talking about this nominee issue and we will certainly be keeping folks updated generally as the situation evolves.