Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing restricted occupations here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from The Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: DSI raids Phuket accountants over Bt440 million in nominee companies. I want to start by saying look before anybody says “well that's Phuket, things are different throughout Thailand”, this is DSI, this is nationwide, I have likened them to the FBI in the United States. I think it's similar not quite a totally apples to apples comparison because there is a National Police Headquarters that kind of is equivalent to that but it is very much akin to the FBI in the United States, I mean it's serious stuff and it is nationwide. Quoting directly: "The Department of Special Investigation, DSI, has raided a legal accounting firm based in Chalong that is now under investigation for its involvement in facilitating nearly 70 foreigners illegally operating companies with holdings worth an estimated total of Bt440 million." Quoting further: "He said, (and he being DSI Director General Pol Major Suriya Singhakamol) quoting further: "He said the practice of using nominee shareholders was illegal under the Foreign Business Act and brought "much economic harm to the country". In total, 44 real estate companies, 8 tourism companies and 14 other service companies, were investigated, Major Suriya confirmed."

So let's be clear. Real estate, restricted occupation; Tourism, restricted occupation; now they say 'other service companies', it may be something that incidentally fell on the list of restricted occupation. Let me quote further, quote: "Each of the 44 real estate companies has real estate holdings to the value of Baht 10 - 20 million, which is equivalent to approximately Bt444 million in real estate sales business, he said." 

So again, they are looking at the real estate side of this and I have done videos already on the topic of land ownership, they are very concerned about that, but it also could be from the fact that maybe foreigners were engaged in the real estate trading business which is a restricted occupation in Thailand, a clearly restricted one. Quoting further: "Accordingly, from the evidence found and as a result of previous investigations, we have found that the law firm set up almost 100 companies for foreigners, of which about 44 companies are related to land," Mr. Suriya said. Again, land specifically, not only restricted to foreigners in terms of ownership but engagement in occupations pertaining to land trading, land brokerage, real estate just generally, that's all restricted. Again, so the point of this video is not only are Thai Law enforcement officials, and I urge those who are watching this video go read this article in detail, a ton of information in there. I am only quoting excerpts and yeah they are useful for the deeper analysis for what I am doing here, but to get even further into the facts, those that are interested here are strongly advised to go ahead and read that article in detail. 

The point I am trying to make is it is not only the land owning which from a policy standpoint it's not only against Thai Law but it goes against policy here in Thailand, as well as tax avoidance, tax evasion which I got into in another specific video, it is also having to do with restricted occupations and nominees and again this is stuff that Thailand takes very, very seriously. Now again, many foreigners opt to come to Thailand and engage in a business with a foreign partner. It is not uncommon and under the Foreign Business Act that is possible through a 51/49 share split, Thai to foreign respectively, but again you have got to be cognizant of all of this stuff going on and again you need to be aware that your Thai counterpart can't be a nominee; it can't be just some inert name on a piece of paper. And again we can get into the detailed analysis on that is going to be case specific, circumstantially specific and you can get into that detailed analysis; we do it all the time to assist clients. This is why because failure to do that due diligence can result in a situation where DSI is raiding a place and possibly confiscating your company effectively or even the assets within that company depending on the circumstances in the underlying case.