Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai companies under scrutiny by law enforcement here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Police set up nominee holding cases on Koh Samui, Koh Phangan. Quoting directly: "The Royal Thai Police are intensifying investigations into alleged nominee land holdings by foreigners on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan in Surat Thani, a practice that may threaten economic security, especially in key tourist areas. Pol. Lt. Gen Yingyos Thepjamnong, Assistant Commissioner, said authorities are working closely with Surat Thani provincial officials, the Land Department, the Department of Business Development and security agencies to scrutinize the cases."

Yeah, look, if you're using nominee companies to own land in Thailand, they have the tools now to see that more than anything. This stuff has always been illegitimate; I have been talking about it for years. There are narrows subsets of fact patterns where some sort of corporate structure that owns land may be warranted in a foreign context that may involve a foreigner doing business here in Thailand, or in some kind of family relationship with somebody that may own, or have such corporate interests, but again it is going to be fact dependent and it's a very narrow subset. 

These folks that will tell you, "oh we just set up a company and it's a holding company for a piece of land in Thailand”, that's a real problem, that can lead to real issues here in Thailand and law enforcement here in Thailand has the tools to see that stuff digitally now, in ways that they never been able to do that before. I've reported on the cases going back years now of law firms even, being raided over the issue of nominee corporate structures to own land, and where it's just viewed as completely egregious or completely - I hesitate to even call it pre-textual where it's pretensive - the police are getting involved and they are enforcing Thai law on it, which sometimes can mean dissolving the company, seizing the land, and the person that thought that they owned something here in Thailand doesn't, and they lose their investment. That more than anything I think should chill most people from looking into these kind of structures to begin with. 

That being said, there are other instruments here in Thailand to be able to enjoy the benefit of land usage akin to ownership. There are also ownership options for things like condos here in Thailand and the definition of a condo can sometimes be a little bit fluid and can provide some benefits that might not be foreseen by all the folks that look at real estate or analyze the real estate market here in Thailand. 

That being said, again it's going to be driven by the underlying facts in a given case. Those who feel a bit overwhelmed by this stuff, it may not be a terrible idea to contact to a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed before getting into some sort of real estate matter that you are not really aware of all the parameters of.