Transcript of the above: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing foreign nationals who have been arrested in Thailand for doing business illegally. There are certain illegal, there are restricted occupations here in Thailand. There are certain types of businesses which are restricted to Thai nationals and most types of business here in Thailand, if you are a foreign national, then you have to operate under the Foreign Business Act which oftentimes requires that certain types of businesses be primarily Thai-owned which leads to the issue of nominees where people basically just put Thais on their shareholder list as sort of a smoke screen if you will in order to circumvent the rules. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Phuket Police bust Belarusian-run illegal car rental business. Quoting directly: "Police have arrested two Belarusian nationals for operating an unlicensed car rental business using Thai nominees, following a series of traffic accidents involving foreigners driving without valid licenses. The business was run entirely by foreigners who managed rentals and payments themselves, hiring out vehicles without verifying driving licenses, Chalong Police said on Friday. Thai citizens were listed as partners to circumvent foreign ownership restrictions, they said." I urge those who are watching this, check out that article for more details. That said, quoting further: "Investigators on Wednesday raided the rental shop and an accounting firm." 

This is really something to really point out here. A lot of "so-called" law firms and accounting firms that have been doing a lot of illegal stuff, are really starting to have problems and it's not going to surprise me if you don't see more as time goes on because look, at the end of the day, there is a way to do things in Thailand and there is a way not to and folks that find themselves on the wrong side of the law - whether in an accounting firm, a law firm or whatever - can still find themselves arrested as well. That said, quoting further: "an accounting firm in Tambon Chalong to collect evidence. The following day, the Phuket Provincial Court issued arrest warrants. The two Belarusians, a man and a woman whose names were not released, were charged with operating a restricted business without authorization and using Thai nominees to illegally conduct commercial activities reserved for Thai nationals. Under Thai law, foreigners are prohibited from engaging in certain businesses listed in Schedule 3 without proper permits. Using Thai citizens as nominee shareholders to evade these restrictions constitutes a criminal offense." 

Yeah, I mean that's just the long and the short of it. Now agree with it, disagree with it, as a foreigner here in Thailand, at the end of the day it is Thailand, it's Thai law, and this is how they do things. And yeah, you may find yourself subject to being arrested and again I would presume following adjudication of any criminal activity or alleged criminal activity in the case, these folks are probably going to be subjected to deportation as well. 

It's noteworthy here that again it only came upon the police's radar after they noticed that a lot of people were driving around without proper licenses and things, and they ended up tracing it back to this business. But understand, more and more as we see digitization in the Thai, especially in the Department of Business Development under the auspices of the Commerce Ministry as we see it digitized more and more, I think it is very likely we are going to see increasing numbers of these types of arrests. It's my understanding that down on the islands off Samui, down in Phangan, basically Surat Thani Province, there are a lot of these kind of raids happening on a regular basis now because a lot of foreigners basically ran down there and started setting up illegal businesses and Thai Law Enforcement is responding accordingly. 

How this all plays out, especially over the course of the forthcoming year, remains to be seen but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.