Briton Held in Phang Nga Nominee Business Probe

They're coming to get you.

I hope they take down the corrupt Thais as well, involved in nominee companies.

Hope they jail all these nominee crooks. But the Thai lawyers will be exempt!

1 hour ago, Georgealbert said:

following complaints regarding possible unlawful business operations and employment of foreign nationals.

That's how the legal system in Thailand works. In large measure, there is no action until there is a complaint.

There seem to be some properties in Samui being discounted heavily…

Thailand is no longer the place you can do business or buy a villa with dodgy companies.

77 year old Brit has to moonlight as dosent get his pension increase. Amazing Thailand 😁

46 minutes ago, JerryM said:

That's how the legal system in Thailand works. In large measure, there is no action until there is a complaint.

But expect a lot more complaints in the near future, now that it all has been brought in the public eye.

The xenophobe Thais will have a field day

No doubt this is happening at all the big foreign tourist resorts Pattaya

Phuket ect

Where there's money to made there will corrupt people involved 🤑

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Soon the taxman will go after foreigners that have not filed their tax returns. ☹️

An AI can read all shareholders declared at DBD. Any CAP table with non-Thai names is then easily found. All Thai companies annual accounting filings are public and can be scraped. Any company with a non-Thai shareholder that does not transact business at a rate expected will be subject to review; again AI outputting 'confidence levels', then manual. Eventually the system will learn and do most of the reviews automatically.

So shell companies with no, or just a couple of employees, no rotation of staff for years, no social security payments for staff's accounts, no regular bills or revenue will rise to the surface and be reviewed. Hiding in the background noise worked when these systems were manually investigated. Now an AI agent can go through the entire nation's 2.6 million registered companies in a few hours. They will be very thorough and take their time, but they will eventually go after everyone with a shell Co. and nominee shareholders.

My business partner's wife was summoned by the RTP regarding his ten year old Co. She was asked about the Co's operations, customers, business model, fees, purchases, suppliers and more. When she was able to answer pretty much everything they quickly realised she was not a nominee but a genuine vested partner and Co executive, they let her go before calling each other idiots for pulling in the wrong person.

That's a crappy end to a 77 year old's happy retirement life.

He obviously forgot the brown envelopes or stupidly thought he was above the law

That's his retirement fund gone

It's time for Thailand to reevaluate and update its outdated foreign ownership laws, which is 49-51 structure!

53 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

xenophobe Thais will have a field day

It's not xenophobe but the law.

For justice not only should any foreigner unlawfully own and/or operate a business in Thailand be prosecuted, involved Thais should also. It's called 'no person is above the law.'

1 hour ago, JerryM said:

there is no action until there is a complaint.

In this case it appears that government investigators filed the complaint :

3 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

investigators at Khok Kloi Police Station registered the complaints as criminal cases numbered 115-120/2569. The Phang Nga Provincial Court approved arrest warrants

1 hour ago, baansgr said:

77 year old Brit has to moonlight as dosent get his pension increase.

He could get several years jail in which case pension won't be an immediate issue.

14 minutes ago, The Alien said:

It's time for Thailand to reevaluate and update its outdated foreign ownership laws, which is 49-51 structure!

I doubt it. This is being done to get rid of the foreigner competition. So the Thai hotel owner down the street might have been the one to lodge a complaint, as is his right. But will they charge the Thais in these nominee ventures? That's the question.

32 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

In this case it appears that government investigators filed the complaint :

Investigators or internal auditors can file complaints which are turned over to the police as actionable. 'Complaints' does not imply that they come only from the general public.

Still this whole thing may have been initiated based on Agoda-type listings noticed by the investigators or complaints from neighboring legit operations.

So exactly how many Thais acting illegally as nominees were arrested? 🤔

Foreigners can hold 100% of a business with support from the BOI. No limit on foreign workers too.

However, it needs to be quite a large investment.

Israelites owning corner shops don't count.

I still wonder what will they do with the seized assets ? A big grab festival ?

1 hour ago, ronnie50 said:

I doubt it. This is being done to get rid of the foreigner competition. So the Thai hotel owner down the street might have been the one to lodge a complaint, as is his right. But will they charge the Thais in these nominee ventures? That's the question.

Don't worry about the Thais, it's more the monied up foreigners coming here corrupting the place...if foreigners didn't come to abuse the system, the problem would not exist

5 minutes ago, Marco100 said:

I still wonder what will they do with the seized assets ? A big grab festival

Seizes goods, same as most countries

28 minutes ago, baansgr said:

Don't worry about the Thais, it's more the monied up foreigners coming here corrupting the place...if foreigners didn't come to abuse the system, the problem would not exist

I think it's both. One needs the other to make money.

37 minutes ago, Marco100 said:

I still wonder what will they do with the seized assets ? A big grab festival ?

37 minutes ago, Marco100 said:

I still wonder what will they do with the seized assets ? A big grab festival ?

38 minutes ago, Marco100 said:

I still wonder what will they do with the seized assets ? A big grab festival ?

I suspect they will be auctioned and the sale proceeds will be kept by the state!

I think a lot of foreign owners who have used a nominee company now have good reason to have sleepless nights

4 hours ago, rocketboy2 said:

They're coming to get you.

I hope they take down the corrupt Thais as well, involved in nominee companies.

Tbh, I don’t see any specific mention in the charges about nominees being used to own the companies.

They are still investigating so maybe that will come later. But it seems current charges are focused on working without a work permit and operating business without the proper licenses.

It’s possible that this case got swept up into the current nominee company shareholders initiative to make that one look like it’s getting results.

But, as I said, maybe the nominee shareholder charges will come later.

“following complaints regarding possible unlawful business operations and employment of foreign nationals. Investigators found that a group of companies operating in the Ban Na Tai-Khao Pilai area of Takua Thung district may have allowed foreign nationals to conduct business or work without the required legal permissions. Authorities also suspected the companies of operating hotel businesses without licences.”

“During the operation, officers arrested a man, identified by authorities as Andrew Parkhouse, 77, a British national, on a charge of being a foreigner permitted to stay temporarily in Thailand but working without authorisation. A company involved also faces legal action for employing a foreign worker without a valid work permit.”

4 hours ago, henryford1958 said:

Hope they jail all these nominee crooks. But the Thai lawyers will be exempt!

I gave my missus the money to buy my house simply because I knew that with my luck I would get bitten in the ass at some time or other if I bough a nominee company. In other words, I wrote off the money but the wife hasn't kicked me out yet after 17 years. However, I'm not pleased that the likes of this old guy have been nicked for it, when a Thai can buy as much property as he likes in the UK and if they don't wish to buy, can probably get a council house thrown at them.

4 minutes ago, boloaf said:

I gave my missus the money to buy my house simply because I knew that with my luck I would get bitten in the ass at some time or other if I bough a nominee company. In other words, I wrote off the money but the wife hasn't kicked me out yet after 17 years. However, I'm not pleased that the likes of this old guy have been nicked for it, when a Thai can buy as much property as he likes in the UK and if they don't wish to buy, can probably get a council house thrown at them.

I think he has been arrested for working without a work permit. By the sounds of it he has a retirement visa.

1 hour ago, baansgr said:

Don't worry about the Thais, it's more the monied up foreigners coming here corrupting the place...if foreigners didn't come to abuse the system, the problem would not exist

I suspect not a small amount of money laundering and home country tax evasion involved in a lot of big money development projects.

Most of the nominees are 'man of straws'. If they were real Nominees - they will probably be 'connected' and the police will not even investigate... think about it.....

Anyhow for some, it is really sad to lose everything on some practice which the 'whole world' in Thailand is doing.