Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing nominees in the context of doing business here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, nominees are illegal in Thailand, as we have noted in a number of other videos. Nominees may sometimes be utilized primarily where we see folks trying to utilize a corporation in order to circumvent Thai restrictions on foreigners owning land here in the Kingdom. 

This is a common thing that we would oftentimes see in the past. Now to be clear, and I have discussed this in other videos, there are narrow factual circumstances and I have discussed this with lawyers here in our office, there are narrow factual circumstances where some kind of corporate setup that involves property ownership may be perfectly in line with not only Thai Law but the underlying policy behind Thai Law. Generally speaking you see that in the context of for example folks that are maybe married to a Thai national; there maybe circumstances where that makes some sense. As we have also discussed, there may be various concessions occurring under the Industrial Estate Authority here in Thailand or the Board of Investment but again those are limited scenarios. What we are talking about here is basically people trying to just use a corporation to basically act as a front or act as a kind of smoke screen for again, circumvention of Thai Legal restrictions. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Foreigners working without a permit in Thailand face Crackdown. Quoting directly: "Thais were now complaining that foreigners were taking jobs reserved for them or buying land at inflated prices which in turn led to increases in the cost of living for all. Khun Sittipol explained that the most serious abuse involved foreigners hiring Thai nominees in international trading companies. Nominees are Thais who have no stake or interest in the business but are paid to keep quiet. They usually have to sign undated letters of resignation in case they get greedy or are no longer needed." Yeah look, I haven't really gone into this before in great detail although I think going back a few years ago, I made some videos on this. When people start talking about undated resignation letters in the context of nominees here in Thailand, that should be a massive red flag to you the foreigner especially who are looking to do something here. Why is that? Because the existence of the letter itself acts as evidence reinforcing the claim that that individual is a nominee. I mean think about it. Why would somebody who really has an ownership stake in a given enterprise allow themselves to just be taken off ownership or have their ownership stripped of them on a whim? Why would that happen? That wouldn't make a great deal of sense if you think about it. So again, this is one of those things that should always be raising a red flag with those who are looking to either do business or have some kind of property interest here in Thailand.

To be clear, I don't make these videos to just be negative on farang, foreigners enjoying property here. There are options. There are just options that are legal and options that are not legal. As we have discussed in many other videos, there is leasing capabilities, there's lifetime right of use, usufruct capabilities, things like superficies as well as mortgages and other types of legal instruments that can be utilized to enjoy the use of property here in Thailand. But that said, it is very, very wise to utilize those that are clearly for lack of a better term, it's sort of like the old days of SEO, where there was 'white hat SEO' Search Engine Optimization and 'black hat SEO' Search Engine Optimization. We're talking about legalities here obviously but you want to stick with 'white hat', that's the best way to look at this. So when you are thinking of these kind of things, that is the kind of paradigm you want to make maintain when thinking about doing business or owning property here in the Kingdom of Thailand.