Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing "Are Thai Immigration Police now becoming increasingly concerned about land holding companies?" I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Phuket Immigration joins illegal business raids. So, the first thing you have to keep in mind is they are saying Phuket Immigration Police are joining in on these raids. Quoting further: "Phuket Immigration has confirmed its role in the raid on the Octopus restaurant in Cherng Talay last week, and confirmed that a second raid had been conducted at ST Accounting in Chalong." Quoting further: "DSI Director General", so again DSI, that's kind of something analogous to the FBI in the United States. "DSI Director General Pol Maj Suriya Singhkamol, in Phuket to lead the raid, explained that the company was under investigation for its involvement in facilitating nearly 70 foreigners illegally operating companies with holdings worth an estimated total of B440 million." 

As we talked about last summer, this was concerning to me because I saw it as something that was indicative of a sea change within the Immigration apparatus pertaining to the fact that, look at the end of the day, they are providing heightened scrutiny with regard to Work Permits and Visas. Now it appears that Thai Immigration is even looking into matters pertaining to land holding. Now again, they were quoting a DSI Major but again Phuket Immigration seems to be involved now. So this is a major shift. I mean I can't express this; I can't overstate this enough; I'm trying to get a point across here. You really need to stay in compliance with respect to Thai Law, not try to play a bunch of games with the system or game around the system because at the end of the day it could lead to really dire consequences. Most notably, you could be involved in a business operation that you think is okay but unfortunately the legalities were not maintained correctly or you think it's okay to perhaps an own land in a Thai Company. Up to now, at least up to me reading this article, that would usually involve some kind of problem maybe with the Land Office or perhaps the Department of Business Development but now Phuket Immigration specifically seems to be involved and other offices too. Phuket Immigration, DSI, Phuket Provincial Tourism and Sports Office, and the Phuket Tourist Police all seem to have been involved in this.

So again, this is a significant change if you will in terms of the paradigm associated with law enforcement and land holding here in the Kingdom of Thailand.