Joint forces raid 18 foreign-owned Koh Samui hotels for operating without licences

[webfact]

Joint forces raid 18 foreign-owned Koh Samui hotels for operating without licences

By The Nation

 

 

File photo

 

Army officers, police and district officials have checked and found 18 hotels that they say are illegally owned by foreigners on a mountain on the tourist destination of Koh Samui, officials said.
 

The officials carried out the search on Chawaeng Noi Mountain in Moo 6 village in Tambon Borphud in Surat Thani’s Samui district and found that 18 luxury mansions had been modified as hotels to cater to foreign tourists.

 

None of the 18 hotels are licensed and all are co-owned by businessmen from several countries, said officials, including UK, Germany, France, Russia, Belgium, Israel and Austria.

 

Officials said the foreigners used Thais as nominees by stating their names as co-owners.

 

The inspection was carried out following complaints from licensed hotels that they had seen a large decrease in patrons after the new hotels began operating. Hoteliers said the new hotels have an unfair advantage because they are not paying the same taxes as the licensed hotels.

 

Officials found the 18 hotels have land deeds but have not been registered as hotels.

 

On Wednesday, the Borphud police station took legal action against foreign executives of the four companies that run four of the 18 hotels. They were charged with operating without a license and working in a business – food and beverage – that is reserved for Thais.

 

Police said they will summon executives of the remaining 14 hotels to face charges. The executives are living abroad.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30368280

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-04-24

[kotsak]

Right, blame the foreigners.. the local nominees are innocent.

 

[GeorgeCross]

something seems weird about this story. 18 mansions owned by foreigners of different nationalites suddenly all get converted to hotels at or near the same time? airbnb?

[bluesofa]

22 minutes ago, webfact said:

They were charged with operating without a license and working in a business – food and beverage – that is reserved for Thais.

I'm sure in the past I've seen adverts for foreign Food & Beverage managers, offering a work permit.

I didn't realise it was a 'reserved occupation'?

[RobbyXNorway]

Yepp, sounds like Thai authorities are cracking down on AirBnB and consider the mansions/villas rented out as illegal hotels. For those who are neighbours to these AirBnB rentals they will probably sigh in relief. Going to be interesting what the consequence will be.

[Justgrazing]

53 minutes ago, webfact said:

Joint forces raid 18 foreign-owned Koh Samui hotels for operating without licences

" Joint forces " following on from " Taskforce " towing alleged illegal buoy the other day .. Just waiting now for the Special Forces storm unlicensed massage parlour headline .. 

[GeorgeCross]

1 minute ago, Justgrazing said:

" Joint forces " following on from " Taskforce " towing alleged illegal buoy the other day .. Just waiting now for the Special Forces storm unlicensed massage parlour headline .. 

 

haven't they tried that a few times already and on the day 'everybody holiday' 

 

 

[bluesofa]

2 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

55 minutes ago, webfact said:

Joint forces raid 18 foreign-owned Koh Samui hotels for operating without licences

" Joint forces " following on from " Taskforce " towing alleged illegal buoy the other day .. Just waiting now for the Special Forces storm unlicensed massage parlour headline .. 

Edited 1 minute ago by Justgrazing

Oh, I thought the 'joint forces' were out to bust illegal dope sellers.

[GeorgeCross]

25 minutes ago, RobbyXNorway said:

Yepp, sounds like Thai authorities are cracking down on AirBnB and consider the mansions/villas rented out as illegal hotels. For those who are neighbours to these AirBnB rentals they will probably sigh in relief. Going to be interesting what the consequence will be.

 

agree there, we had one in our village once and it was a massive PITA at weekends

these days they go for the 2 week+ holiday rental crowd and to be honest most of the guests are quite pleasant.

 

just as profitable i hear too.. sshhh!

 

 

[Justgrazing]

2 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Oh, I thought the 'joint forces' were out to bust illegal dope sellers.

Is that not the " Green " berets .. 

[bluesofa]

Just now, Justgrazing said:

Is that not the " Green " berets .. 

Ha ha! 'High' five for that.

[Odysseus123]

Oh another raid by Thai "special forces" fighting the evil "farang"..

 

 

 

[Odysseus123]

And the Thai navy took down the evil "farang" sea stead as well..

 

A big week for Thailand and medals all round..lots an' lots of medals..

 

"Thailand Expects that Every man Will do his Duty"

 

 

[Danny286]

Typical Farangs. Never fails to amaze and then later they go and whine about how Thailand is so unwelcoming and hostile towards their privileged white asses.

This is very common across all the islands and some parts of mainland in Thailand. So many fat white guys are co-owner of every other building and turned it into hotels for other fat white guys or backpacking beggers. Some even marry innocent Thai women just to stay here and do their filthy business. Thai people are just loosing their homes and opportunities to them. It's their country. They should get the money from tourism in their country.

[Odysseus123]

1 minute ago, Danny286 said:

Typical Farangs. Never fails to amaze and then later they go and whine about how Thailand is so unwelcoming and hostile towards their privileged white asses.

This is very common across all the islands and some parts of mainland in Thailand. So many fat white guys are co-owner of every other building and turned it into hotels for other fat white guys or backpacking beggers. Some even marry innocent Thai women just to stay here and do their filthy business. Thai people are just loosing their homes and opportunities to them. It's their country. They should get the money from tourism in their country.

I sympathize with you..

 

The "nation" must have been truly scraping the bottom of the barrel..and you have been sent in alone..

 

Never mind..the other discombobulated xenophobic,foreign hating, fools will turn up in a moment to support you.

[trainman34014]

51 minutes ago, Danny286 said:

Typical Farangs. Never fails to amaze and then later they go and whine about how Thailand is so unwelcoming and hostile towards their privileged white asses.

This is very common across all the islands and some parts of mainland in Thailand. So many fat white guys are co-owner of every other building and turned it into hotels for other fat white guys or backpacking beggers. Some even marry innocent Thai women just to stay here and do their filthy business. Thai people are just loosing their homes and opportunities to them. It's their country. They should get the money from tourism in their country.

Can we have pictorial evidence that there are so many 'Fat White Guys' secretly running business's in Thailand please.

 

Just one other small thing.....I have yet to meet an 'innocent' Thai Woman in the twelve years i have lived here !!

[ParadiseLost]

They need to check out Had Salad and Had Yao on Koh Phangan as well - it's looking more like the French Riviera every day! These are mostly houses available on AirBnB.

 

Was there not a report a year or two back that stated AirBnB is illegal in Thailand?

 

Found it...

 

[ThomasThBKK]

1 hour ago, Danny286 said:

Typical Farangs. Never fails to amaze and then later they go and whine about how Thailand is so unwelcoming and hostile towards their privileged white asses.

This is very common across all the islands and some parts of mainland in Thailand. So many fat white guys are co-owner of every other building and turned it into hotels for other fat white guys or backpacking beggers. Some even marry innocent Thai women just to stay here and do their filthy business. Thai people are just loosing their homes and opportunities to them. It's their country. They should get the money from tourism in their country.

Lol, as if the land/condos/houses/hotel here would be worth sth if no foreigner invests into it.

 

What's wrong about co-owning sth? What's wrong about foreign shareholders in companies? Nothing. Just xenophobic BS.

 

 

The only thing bad about it is not getting a hotel license, but i doubt all of these buildings even needed a hotel license... 4/20 law in the hotel act...

 

[Odysseus123]

1 hour ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Lol, as if the land/condos/houses/hotel here would be worth sth if no foreigner invests into it.

 

What's wrong about co-owning sth? What's wrong about foreign shareholders in companies? Nothing. Just xenophobic BS.

 

 

The only thing bad about it is not getting a hotel license, but i doubt all of these buildings even needed a hotel license... 4/20 law in the hotel act...

 

When you are a 5'2'' intellectual dwarf covered with spurious combat medals (not to mention "farang" watches) you really don't need any logical or rational answers.

[Lenny Jones]

15 hours ago, kotsak said:

Right, blame the foreigners.. the local nominees are innocent.

 

Change "guilty" and "innocent" to "smart" and "dumb - all flavoured with a touch of "greedy"

[ChrisY1]

And I would hazard a guess that the entire stock of these "Nominee" properties, will be subject to a biased legal case and be stolen from them....probably go to a top cop and judge!

[ronaldo0]

Only 18 ?? The whole of chaweng noi is basically for rent !!

Hard to find a property nowadays over 30 million that the owner actually lives in I imagine on samui and odd they do this now and again in various areas meanwhile there are loads of businesses and beachfront places that are certainly not there as a money making venture but they cost a fortune to build !!????

[quandow]

Did the local Macro run out of brown envelopes?

[BestB]

Firstly note that authorities went into action because “some” hotels complained.

 

article states they do not pay same taxes , how is that? It’s owned by companies so they do pay taxes.

 

it states nominees , well that is how most foreign businesses are set up, no other way around 

[ThomasThBKK]

42 minutes ago, BestB said:

Firstly note that authorities went into action because “some” hotels complained.

 

article states they do not pay same taxes , how is that? It’s owned by companies so they do pay taxes.

 

it states nominees , well that is how most foreign businesses are set up, no other way around 

 

Should go after a Red Bull, it's clearly a nominee structure too. Owned 49% by an Austrian dude while a thai dude has 51%. 

 

This whole nominee stuff ia just rubbish and normally has nothing todo with the definition of a nominee director. 

 

Having thai shareholders is not a nominee setup, it's a legal necessity here. Nominees are only nominees if they have no stake in the business and get paid only to be a pseudo shareholder. If those thais are keeping care of the properties and handling the renting etc they can be by definition no nominee. 

 

 

Guess some thai dude wanted to steal a bunch of villas and that was the best shit they could make up. 

[Bangkok Barry]

18 hours ago, bluesofa said:

I'm sure in the past I've seen adverts for foreign Food & Beverage managers, offering a work permit.

I didn't realise it was a 'reserved occupation'?

 

Read again. They were arrested for running a hotel without a license. Nothing to do with being F&B managers. Having said that, when are they going to even things up and arrest Thais who are running hotels there without a license. I'd guess there are far more of them. And, as someone else posted, the Thai nominees in this case. Hmm?

[Sticky Wicket]

17 hours ago, Danny286 said:

Typical Farangs. Never fails to amaze and then later they go and whine about how Thailand is so unwelcoming and hostile towards their privileged white asses.

This is very common across all the islands and some parts of mainland in Thailand. So many fat white guys are co-owner of every other building and turned it into hotels for other fat white guys or backpacking beggers. Some even marry innocent Thai women just to stay here and do their filthy business. Thai people are just loosing their homes and opportunities to them. It's their country. They should get the money from tourism in their country.

Troll alert

[Sticky Wicket]

16 hours ago, trainman34014 said:

Can we have pictorial evidence that there are so many 'Fat White Guys' secretly running business's in Thailand please.

 

Just one other small thing.....I have yet to meet an 'innocent' Thai Woman in the twelve years i have lived here !!

Really!!! Danny286's wife has a Masters and PHD from Chulalonghorn...... of course and he looks like Adonis

[ThomasThBKK]

 
Read again. They were arrested for running a hotel without a license. Nothing to do with being F&B managers. Having said that, when are they going to even things up and arrest Thais who are running hotels there without a license. I'd guess there are far more of them. And, as someone else posted, the Thai nominees in this case. Hmm?

Up to 4 rooms and 20 sleeps you don't need a hotel license. That's clarified in thailands hotel act.

So I would question if even that is real...

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

[Xaos]

"Army officers, police and district officials"

2 guys could do all that.