Thailand's Commerce and Interior ministries will form a permanent joint team to pursue suspected nominee arrangements used by foreigners to operate businesses or hold land through Thai nationals.
Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun and Deputy Interior Minister Pholphee Suwanchawee agreed the plan at a meeting at 3pm on 4 September 2026 in the Kittiyakon meeting room at the Ministry of Commerce.
The Department of Business Development, Department of Provincial Administration and Land Department will link and exchange their records. Their shared database will be updated monthly, allowing officials to cross-check company registrations, shareholder changes, people connected to firms and land ownership.
Shareholder changes will be checked
A central part of the approach is the examination of historical records, rather than just a company's current shareholder structure.
Officials said some companies had changed their structures after the government intensified its action against nominees, increasing the proportion of Thai shareholders so that paperwork appeared to meet legal requirements and avoided scrutiny.
Pholphee said officials would be able to look back even where a company had since changed its shareholders. The Department of Business Development has been asked to provide historical shareholder-change data, particularly for companies identified as targets, so the facts before any restructuring can be examined.
"Thai people should not be concerned," he said. "Following today's discussion, the Department of Business Development has already been asked to cooperate by sending historical shareholder-change information, especially for companies in the target group."
Land and business arrangements in focus
The stated aims are to protect Thai businesses and legally compliant operators from being disadvantaged by capital groups exploiting nominee channels, and to prevent Thai land being controlled by foreigners through individuals or legal entities acting as holders.
For foreigners living in or investing in Thailand, the announcement does not change the rules on legitimate foreign business ownership. It does, however, signal closer and more sustained scrutiny of structures involving Thai shareholders, as well as arrangements connected with land. Foreign investors should ensure company registrations, shareholder records and land-related transactions accurately reflect the real parties involved.
Pholphee said cases would not stop with the individual or company currently named in records. Investigations will be extended to everyone involved, including accounting offices, law firms or others who helped establish and register companies, if they are found to have known about or participated in wrongdoing.
State officials found to have been involved, or to have used their positions to assist foreigners in breaking the law, will also be investigated and prosecuted without exception, he said.
A continuing joint operation
The ministries said the team will be a continuing operation rather than a one-off task force. By connecting company, personal and land data, the three departments aim to close gaps allowing nominees to be used in both business operations and land holding.
Pictures courtesy of Naewna
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7 September 2026
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