Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the fact that Thai Authorities have cracked down substantially regarding the practice of utilization of nominee shareholders within corporate structures here in Thailand. What are we talking about? 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 1,000 arrests made in crackdown on proxies. Quoting directly: "These companies had property assets valued at 254 million baht, with confiscated documents showing that they had hired law or accounting firms to handle their registration. Deputy Commerce Minister Napintorn Srisanpang said the joint operation followed an agreement by the Police and the DBD.." - that's the Department of Business Development. Quoting further: "..in early November to investigate Thai nominees. He urged Thai nationals acting as proxies to come forward and report to authorities to earn themselves a chance to be treated as witnesses. He said any lawyers or accountants involved would be reported to professional regulatory bodies." Quoting further: "Deputy Pol Chief Thatchai Pitaneelabutr said the use of Thai proxies has harmed the economy, imposed a threat to national security, especially when these firms are operated by call-centre or drug gangs." Clearly Thai Authorities are very, very concerned about the usage of nominees here in Thailand, and foreigners contravening relevant Thai laws regarding restricted occupations and restricted business activities. And as I have discussed in other videos, one) due to digitization, they have the ability to basically engage in this kind of activity on a nationwide scale. Where once it was really only possible to do this, it seemed, at least on a Provincial level here in Thailand, now they're going across the board. Meanwhile, the other thing to think of is, again they have targeted law firms, they have targeted accounting firms who are engaging in these elicit activities, in this not formally legal basically, endeavour and that's another thing to bear in mind. We have discussed this before. We've seen law firms and accounting firms raided; I've done the videos in the past. This appears to my mind, to increasingly be something of importance, at least in the minds of Thai Law enforcement.

So the point I am trying to make with this video is look, notwithstanding the fact you may get 'yessed' to death by practitioners, foreign or otherwise in Thailand, and they say "oh you can do this, you can do that". At the end of the day, you really need to be fully aware of how this stuff complies with Thai law, whether or not what you're doing complies with Thai law, and basically have your ducks in a row, because failure to do that could lead to a situation where you could see your corporate headquarters for example raided or your nominal corporate headquarters raided, documentation taken. As noted in the article, there are photos there of stamps being taken and things. Again, these are real problems for any business, and you don't want to put yourself in that position, if you're trying to do business here in the Kingdom of Thailand.