Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, it looks like five law offices were searched through this ongoing nominee crackdown. Let's jump in here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 21 foreign suspects in Koh Phangan nominee probe in Court ... "In Court, in Court. They are not messing around on this. I'm making another video contemporaneously with this one talking about that specifically. That said, quoting directly: "Police will today oppose bail when they apply to extend the detention of 21 foreigners arrested in connection with the operations of nominee business on Koh Phangan in Samui Provincial Court on Monday. The arrests were part of a nationwide crackdown targeting foreigners illegally operating businesses through use of Thai nominees. The operation led to the arrest of 21 foreign suspects and the seizure of 38 Land title deeds worth about 200 million Baht for examination."

Now as I have discussed in other videos, the main concern, not the only concern, but the priority concern if you will, is usage of these structures for foreigners to effectively own land. That's what the Thais are concerned about and as you can see, they are not messing around. That said, quoting further: "The group comprises individuals of multiple nationalities including four Israelis, four French, three Russians and two Ukrainians. Others are from Africa, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Australia, Turkey, Germany and the Philippines, and one nationality undisclosed." I'd love to know who Secret Agent Man is in all of that. Like which nationality didn't get disclosed? That said, quoting further: "Police said the operation expanded on evidence gathered during searches of the five law offices earlier this month. Investigators identified 32 businesses suspected of using Thai nominees and obtained 45 arrest warrants for foreign directors linked to the firms. Investigators said financial checks showed the registered Thai shareholder lacked the financial capacity to make the investments, which police said clearly indicated illegal nominee business activity." And I discuss that in another video; they go into talk about one particular company that was owning land and that the land ownership wildly outweighed the amount of registered capital on the company etc. So long story short, it didn't make sense and it looks like it's being utilized for foreigners to own land. 

But the point of this video is that they have searched law offices now, and this is again why you need, I have talked about fake lawyers, I have talked about being yessed to death in Thailand by people who may not have your best interests at heart when you are trying to seek legal assistance or assistance in doing business here or even for folks that do want to avail themselves of usage of property but they want to do it the legal way, they're trying to trust folks who are doing it right, but at the end of the day it looks like there are many who are not. And I'm not trying to cast this aspersions specifically at anyone, but this looks like it's pervasive and it's clear to me from the accounts of law enforcement that this isn't just some flash in the pan if you will, policy endeavour. Nobody here is trying to make waves with a couple of headlines and then this will blow over.

No, as you can see, and I go into it in another video, but as you can see, they are opposing bail; they have arrested 21 foreign suspects. They remain detained, pending the trial presumably, so again, this is not a situation where law enforcement in Thailand is taking this anything but seriously.