Transcript of the above video: 

So as the title of this video suggests, Thai Law Enforcement is being proactive, continuing to be proactive regarding the issue of nominee setups for foreign nationals in Thailand, so corporations basically that are set up fully as a front if you will, as a pretext for a foreign national to be able to do business in spite of the restrictions to certain occupations in Thailand and in spite of the provisions of the Foreign Business Act. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from The Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Accountant Exposed as 'nominee' director in Phuket foreign business probe. Quoting directly: "An accountant at a local accounting firm has been caught listed as a company director for a foreign involved business in Phuket as authorities widened a Crackdown on suspected “nominee” arrangements used to sidestep Thailand's Foreign Business Act." Specifically though, and I get into this in another video, look the issue of nominees is nuanced and I would go so far as to say that whether or not this person even was a nominee would depend on the underlying facts in the case.

That said, there was some specific fraudulent activity going on in here apparently and it pertained to the National Identification Card Act. Quoting directly: "Three of the companies were found to be registered at the same address as an accounting firm. During one inspection, an accountant was found impersonating a legal entity director" - so the key here is that there was somebody impersonating somebody else - quoting further: "and using another person's National Identification Card to provide information to officials in place of the actual director." Quoting further: "Police charged both the director and the accountant under the National Identification Card Act B.E. 2526 (1983) for allowing the use of another person's ID card and using another person's ID Card. Authorities also inspected law firms and accounting firms deemed high risk because their directors held shares in companies with unusually high numbers of foreign shareholders or directors." 

The thing I would say on the issue of simply being a Thai that happens to have corporate holdings along with foreigners, that in and of itself is not illegal. Again, it depends on how it is structured, it depends on why it's structured. Is it purely to just completely circumvent the law or is there some underlying reason for the structure being the way it is? But the real key I think to understanding this is to understand that in the context of it was somebody impersonating someone else and using someone else's ID card, and that was the crux of the problem it looks to me, in this particular case. 

Again the issue of nominees can be nuanced. There is a way to do business in Thailand in compliance with the Foreign Business Act whereby one can set up a 49/51 type of corporate structure but you have to be careful with it and you have got to make sure you are not in violation of restricted occupations nor any of the aspects of the Foreign Business Act that are specifically designed to protect Thai livelihoods; so that's the thing to understand about that. But the main crux of this video is that it comes down to violation of the Thai Identification Card Act; that was the main issue at play in this case here in the Kingdom of Thailand.