'Russian probe' zeroes in on 24 firms in Phuket
Tanyaluk Sakoot

PHUKET: -- The Phuket Business Development Office has been ploughing through a list of 153 companies registered on the island that were believed to have Russian investors, looking for irregularities, and has zeroed in on 24 particular firms.

By July 17, according to documents obtained by The Phuket News, 97 had already been checked and removed from the list for investigation.

Of these, seven were found to be 100 per cent Thai-owned companies and 44 companies were doing no business. Another 43 were waiting for cancellation of registration to be confirmed, one record was a duplicate, and two companies had been closed and their registration already cancelled.

Another 24 companies had already been registered but had not yet supplied financial records.

Nineteen more companies, the BDO documents show, cannot be checked at present. In 11 cases, registered mail from the BDO was returned by the Post Office, undelivered. Of these, only three companies could be located. These will be checked further. The other eight unfound companies will be deregistered by the BDO.

Of the 19, the other eight companies did receive mail from the BDO but did not respond. They are now on a list to be investigated by the DSI.

Another 13 companies are on a separate list to be investigated by the BDO over doubts about their shareholders.

These include four retail or souvenir businesses and two in food and beverage, and one each of the following: tour company, property rental company, payment service company, consultancy and management form, dive operator, property developer, and a website design firm.

Once the BDO has finished checking companies with Russian shareholders it will move on to others with Chinese and Korean investors.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/%E2%80%98russian-probe%E2%80%99-zeroes-in-on-24-firms-in-phuket-40982.php


-- Phuket News 2013-07-25

Let the witch hunt begin

The Minister of Tourism and Sports and the DSI will do this for the photo-op and to give the impression that they care

What a very weird bunch of numbers

I think it was mighty nice of the DSI to give all the companies advance notice of when they were going to investigate them.

I would have kept my mouth shut and just showed up on their doorstep if they had an office.

Even American firms get advanced notice of an audit, which essentially this is.

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The Phuket Business Development Office has been ploughing through a list of 153 companies

Ploughing is done up North with buffalo's.