Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the fact that multiple agencies seem to be involved in an ongoing investigation, raids, just across the board; law enforcement activity associated with nominee companies here in the Kingdom. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that's thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Phuket Immigration joins illegal business raids. So the first thing to note is now Phuket Immigration is getting involved in this stuff directly. That means what at one time might have been just an issue associated with for example Department of Business Development or issues arising out of the Foreign Business Act, now we are seeing scenarios arising where this could have an Immigration implications for foreigners operating here in Thailand. 

So again, Phuket News, thephuketnews.com, Phuket Immigration joins illegal business raids. Quoting directly: "In its slew of posts online yesterday, Phuket Immigration confirmed that nine other businesses were inspected for illegal use of nominees." So again this pertains to illegal use of nominees and there also is an Immigration Work Authorization component as it appears that this all began because there were some foreign bad actors if you will that came to the attention of Thai Police and that led to the overall investigation. As they also mention, this also ties into a raid that occurred back in June of last year which we did a number of videos discussing the fact that that was pretty major sea change at the time as well. "The inspections by officers from the DSI," (which I have said in other videos, somewhat analogous to the FBI in America, here in Thailand) "Phuket Immigration, Phuket Provincial Police, the Phuket Provincial Tourism and Sports Office and Phuket Tourist Police." So I mean this is a significant number of agencies that are getting involved in these raids and are also endeavouring to scrutinize foreigners doing business here in Thailand, utilizing nominees illegally. 

Now to be clear, the whole issue of nominees can be someone opaque and I do understand, people can get rather frustrated by the fact that determining what a nominee is and is not can be something of a complex thing. But long story short, I kind of look at it, again I think it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said in the US Supreme Court, "I don't what obscenity is, but I know it when I see it." This nominee thing is kind of one of those issues where you know it when you see it. Again it depends on the specific facts in the underlying case whether or not something is truly deemed to being a nominee kind of setup. But again where there is no active involvement from the shareholders, that's a general rule of thumb that perhaps those shareholders - especially where they are a majority shareholding - may not be on the up and up. Again, where there is no involvement of the shareholder in the operation of the company that to me is a major red flag in and of itself. That being said, this whole issue is kind of in a fluid state. We are seeing it evolve and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as things proceed.