Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called "nominee groups" and how they are proceeding here in Thailand. What are we talking about? I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Khao Sod English, that is khaosodenglish.com, the article is titled: French woman's Will to her housekeeper highlights Thai Business Law issues. Quoting directly: Mr Ratchaporn Poolsawat, President of the Koh Samui Tourism Promotion Association, said that this affects local investors in Koh Samui who do everything correctly according to the law and pay taxes correctly. But the nominee groups do not pay taxes to the state and do not proceed correctly according to the law. Some foreign investors do business without knowing Thai Law." What are they talking about here? I urge those first off, Khao Sod English, great publication, did a great job in this article. Really sad situation involving a foreign national woman who passed away here in Thailand - condolences to her and her family - but there was sort of a silver lining upshot insofar as her maid seems to have inherited a great deal of wealth but it's all sitting in the sort of “nominee” structures that are sort of colour of law setups that really aren't in compliance with Thai Law. And that is what this person is pointing out in that article is that they are not doing things correctly and it's resulting in adverse consequences for the people who thought they could rely on the structure that they set up. In this case it is causing problems with regard to Thai Inheritance Law. 

So the thing to take away from this video and understand is there are a lot of folks out there that will just "yes" you to death. They will just tell you "oh this is fine, we can do this" and in certain cases there's just stuff you can't. A big one, a big example of this is land ownership in Thailand. I know there are a ton of foreigners that run around out there saying "oh it's no problem, we can set you up with this structure and it does all this good stuff", it's colour of law, it's obfuscation. I have seen and can even point to the links of places that have been raided because they set up these structures to own land in Thailand and the Thais don't want that. It's clear in Thai Law that that is not allowed. They have enforcement capabilities designed to enforce the law, to go after that, for lack of a better term. 

So the thing to take away from this video and to understand, it's a good idea to understand what the Thai Legal System is, how it operates, get some clarification on that and not be "yessed" to death. If something sounds too good to be true it probably is. The person you should be listening to is frankly the pessimist when you are talking about these kind of issues. The person who says "hey you can't do that" or they'll say "well you may be able to do something similar, but it's not going to be exactly what you want but it will be in line with actual Thai law", rather than just some colour of law thing that was just sort of hoisted up fly by night style and doesn't comply with Thai Law and can result in you losing your asset for example, if it comes down to strict scrutiny by Thai Authorities.