Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing what is turning out to be a rather new phenomenon of quite strict enforcement of Thai Labour Law specifically but Immigration and Business Law as well. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Khao Sod English, that's khaosodenglish.com, the article is titled: Police raid many nominee companies in Phuket that belong to Russians. Quoting directly: "During the raids, officers found two Thai women who admitted to setting up a company to register other businesses, apply for Work Permits, apply for visas and various other permits for foreigners. They admitted to setting up companies that were not actually operating in order to create fake documents to apply for various permits for foreigners." 

Well first of all getting into the sort of semantics of an operational company versus a non-operational company in the notion of fake documents versus real documents, you are sorting fly poop and black pepper sometimes when you are getting into this in the sense that it is very discreet analysis sometimes what the difference is. Also in the modern business world, these old school Thai rules as to what constitutes an actual operational business: you have got to have this kind of premises and you have got to have this kind of setup, especially post COVID and with the rise of remote work, some of this stuff is kind of nonsensical. That said, I think that this overall scenario is one of those as Oliver Wendell Holmes I believe put it on the US Supreme Court: "I may not know obscenity or the definition thereof, but I know it when I see it." This is kind of one of those ‘we know it when we see it’ types of things it looks like to me. Police are raiding down there in Phuket because there are a number apparently of foreign nationals who are working illegally in Thailand. Some of them are obtaining Work Permits and then engaging in activities that violate for example the restricted occupations provisions here in Thailand as well as just may generally be engaging in illegal activity. That is kind of an ‘I know it when I see it kind of situation’ and I think Thai police are kind of knowing it when they see it when it comes to these sort of fake documentation, these fake businesses. 

So the thing to take away from this video and understand it is very possible to come to Thailand set up a company and do business here and operate regionally; many of our clients do that. It's also possible to maintain a Work Permit and a Visa utilizing such a corporation but you need to be careful in setting it up and you need to be assiduous in maintaining compliance with relevant Thai Business law as failure to do so can result in very stiff penalties as you can see if you read further into that article, and yeah those penalties can include things like deportation, arrest and possible blacklisting from returning to the Kingdom of Thailand.