Transcript of the above video: 

So here we are, this is another one of these videos. Look this anti-nominee Crackdown is happening all over the country. I've done videos talking about it in the context of Pattaya. I've done videos talking about in the context of Phuket; this is another one regarding Phuket. Down in the islands as well there is a significant Crackdown. That said, let's jump in here. I thought of making this video after reading recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: DSI sends Villa Andaman cases to prosecutors. Quoting directly: "The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has submitted additional case files involving 31 suspects in the Villa Andaman nominee case to public prosecutors following an expanded investigation into alleged illegal foreign owned real estate businesses in Phuket and Koh Samui." Quoting further: "The DSI said its Security Cases Division has been investigating a network of law firms" - a network of law firms. This is really expanding out - "in Phuket and Surat Thani accused of using Thai nationals as nominees to establish companies on behalf of foreign investors in order to hold land and operate real estate development businesses."

As I've discussed in other videos, foreign nationals who are claiming to be able to provide services involving Thai Real Estate or legal assistance associated therewith, need to be treated with extreme caution, because as is evidenced from these crackdowns, this stuff is illegal and the authorities are coming after it. 

That said, quoting further: "The investigation is part of case number 7/2027 involving Villa Andaman Co Ltd and related parties. DSI investigators had previously submitted the main case file against Villa Andaman Co Ltd and 31 suspects to the Office of the Attorney General's Special Cases Division on April 22 this year. At that time, files relating to 28 suspects were submitted, while three additional suspects remained pending due to criminal background checks. The DSI confirmed that the remaining investigation, involving suspects connected to Firefly (Thailand) Co Ltd, has now been completed. DSI investigators from the DSI Security Cases Division on Monday (May 25) submitted additional investigation files covering the remaining three suspects, along with two foreign nationals identified only as 'Mr. Symond' and 'Ms. Wendy' in both personal and representative capacities. According to the DSI, the expanded investigation stemmed from allegations that 'Mr. Marcus', a British national, and 'Mr. Paul', an American national, jointly used Thai nominees to conceal foreign ownership interest in real estate businesses in violation of Thai Law. All suspects are accused of offenses under the Foreign Business Act of 1999, including operating businesses without permission as foreigners, using Thai nominees to circumvent restrictions on foreign ownership, and directors being complicit in offenses being committed by legal entities. The DSI said the investigation forms part of the ongoing efforts to prevent foreigners from exploiting legal loopholes to acquire land or operate restricted businesses in ways that negatively affect the Thai economy and employment opportunities for Thai nationals." So, I wouldn't even call it a loophole. It's just folks just trying to utilize colour of law mechanisms to violate the overt letter of the law; that's how I would sort of look at it.

So the thing to take away from this video is again, law enforcement here is being very proactive on this, and on top of that as we discussed in a prior video, there's like 20 odd people in Pattaya I believe, maybe it was Phuket or maybe, I take that back, I think it was Samui and Phangan, down on the islands, where there's like 20 odd people that are currently detained and they are not being granted bail in these cases. This is not being viewed as an administrative matter. I have discussed this in other videos. After there were two, two separate incidents of weapons caches being found in connection with these type of nominee setups, it basically got "moved up" to sort of a national security priority level type case, and the upshot of that is again they are treating it like National security type stuff, again in the form of arresting, detaining, not allowing people bail. On top of that, again, they're going after whether or not people are using these corporations in order to own land and things. And as we have discussed in other videos, they have the ability to thereby dissolve the company if it's determined that it's purely there as a ruse to circumvent Thai law, they can dissolve it and they can seize the land.

So again, there's a lot going on here. I don't think it's going to let up anytime soon. If anything, I think this may become even more, frankly I think law enforcement's efforts may become even more assiduous as we move through this upcoming summer. Exactly how it plays out remains to be seen, but we will certainly be keeping folks updated on this channel as the situation evolves.