Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing seizures of various assets here in Thailand stemming from the push by Thai Law Enforcement to proactively go after what are viewed as illegal nominee structures here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent posting on X from Khao Sod English, that's @KhaoSodEnglish on X, quoting directly: "A major crackdown on alleged foreign nominee businesses has led to the seizure of land and assets worth more than 1.05 billion baht in Southern Thailand. Raids across Phuket, Phang Nga, and Krabi uncovered dozens of companies suspected of using Thai nominees to hold land and operate businesses on behalf of foreign investors."

Well look I have talked about this in other videos. Thailand increasingly, the law enforcement apparatus here can avail themselves of certain digital tools as well as now AI can be utilized to cross-reference various corporate documentation with land holding documentation. And now on top of it, under this Government we have seen a Memorandum of Understanding signed between various bureaucracies here in Thailand, which is going to cause them to work increasingly closely together in coordinating investigation, as well as enforcement matters regarding these type of corporate setups, especially where it is suspected that these companies are being used by Foreign Nationals to effectively own land. It's clear that that is if not one of the main priorities, the priority of this enforcement initiative if you will. 

I've discussed this also in other videos. All of this has been basically upgraded if you will or reprioritized to a national security matter here in Thailand. It's not purely viewed just through the law enforcement sort of lens, so there is that to think of. Long story short, as we move forward though, I think we are going to see more police action; I think we're going to see more of these, at least for a time, as they go through and find these sort of structures, we are going to see more of this. In fact, I think we are going to see more of it for a while yet. I don't expect it to die off until at the earliest toward the end of the year as we usually see from time to time they kind of relax enforcement stuff going into a high season if for no other reason than they don't want to have the headlines make Thailand look like it's anti-foreigner or something. This isn't a matter of being xenophobic; this isn't a matter of being anti-foreigner. Thai Law has been clear for years. Foreigners are prohibited from owning land. The nominee rules are what they are; they've been explicit. They have been on the books for years; it's just what they have been. Again what a nominee is, that may be open to debate, and again somebody who is not at all involved with the business is a very different thing than somebody who is involved with the business. So again the underlying facts in a given case will drive analysis as to the legality of some of these structures. 

That being said, it remains clear to me that it looks like continued law enforcement efforts are going to probably, I would say, become more proactive and assiduous. That being said it remains to be seen, so we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.