Transcript of the above video: 

For those who watch this channel, I don't issue so-called alerts particularly lightly. This alert is no different. That said, let's just dig into it I thought it. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Business nominees in Phuket face jail terms, fines. Quoting directly: "The Criminal Court laid down 2- year jail terms and imposed 200,000-baht fines on 23 Thais and the Companies for which they were acting as business nominees for foreigners in Phuket. Quoting further: “Auramon Supthaweethum, Director-general of the Department of Business Development said on Monday that the Court laid down the sentences on September 11, suspended the jail terms for two years." Quoting further: "The sentences resulted from the Department's investigation which found out that law and accounting firms (I'll circle back to that) in Phuket had registered proxy companies with Thai nominees to illegally let foreigners conduct businesses in sectors which by law are reserved for Thais Ms. Auramon said." Quoting further: "I warn the Thai people involved in such business to stop it because it ruins Thai Business operators and Thai business," Ms. Auramon said. Yeah fair point there. 

That said, look I made this alert because when they do these kinds of things, this is a big deal. It's clear that law enforcement here in Thailand is not messing around with regard to setting up companies in order to circumvent both the laws regarding the ability to own property in Thailand, as well as to engage in restricted occupations and engage in activities which are restricted from foreigners. It seems like a lot of foreigners aren't willing to get that through their head and as a result, we're seeing these sort of crackdowns and we're also seeing situations where foreigners can get themselves into substantial problems especially with regard to possibly Thai Criminal Law; as noted in this video there were criminal penalties meted out with respect to this, as noted in the article. Meanwhile, this could have tremendous negative financial repercussions for a foreign national doing business in Thailand, most notably they can seize the asset, they can seize the corporation, they can dissolve it, they can basically seize what's inside the corporation after it's dissolved. There are a number of ways in which this can be substantially negative for foreign nationals looking to do business in Thailand. So for that reason, it's worth noting, and I think it's worth an ALERT. Hey this is me alerting the foreign community. Thai Officials are serious about this stuff. Stop listening to people that "yes" you to death and tell you "it's no problem, no problem, no issue!" Again I quote again: "The sentences resulted from the Department's investigation which found out that law and accounting firms." This is another thing as I discussed in many other videos Law and Accounting are both restricted occupations in Thailand. If you are dealing with foreigners that are claiming to be able to operate in those spaces, you're probably dealing with somebody that you might want to look twice at or at least be substantially cautious about dealing with because it could have negative ramifications for you, maybe them, maybe not them, but one way or the other, again dealing with somebody who does not have the correct qualifications, the correct credentials, the correct background, the correct experience to be able to provide legal accounting device to be very dangerous on its face. Meanwhile, it has the double danger here in Thailand of possibly negative financial ramifications in the form that they may set you up with something that could later be seized. Meanwhile even you could end up with a situation where you're found to have come criminal penalty applied to you because again you listen to somebody who a) they didn't know what they were talking about, or maybe did and were sort of acting maliciously, or they just didn't care and they're just again some fly-by-night operation. Who knows? But at the end of the day, one) you need to be aware of restricted occupations and also be aware that any foreigner giving “legal advice” saying "oh don't worry about this, we can just circumvent it," is probably somebody you want to probably steer clear of quite frankly.  

That being said, again I know that this stuff can be very overwhelming for folks who are dealing with it especially for the first time. We've also seen a lot of transition roughly in the last roughly 18 months here in Thailand. So those who are feeling overwhelmed, it may not be a terrible idea to contact somebody who actually is a credential qualified legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.