Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thailand's Foreign Business Act as well as work authorization. Let's just jump in here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Foreigners living in fear as Thailand's legal system becomes a weapon. Yeah, the title on this one is a little bit hyperbolic. I don't know that anybody is living in fear, but there is some anxiety in the foreign community regarding these crackdowns on nominees, as well as some of the tightening immigration stuff. I've had a lot of folks giving me blowback online and elsewhere regarding basically, how do I put it, they are basically sort of saying, "oh, there are ulterior motives; Thailand's economy is bad, that's why they are cracking down on all this stuff." No, I don't think so. One of the big reasons for this crackdown, I think, is that in the past year we have seen a number of incidents involving foreign nationals doing things that really up to the past year or two were unheard of; I mean in a very real sense. And now there are ramifications for that; there are consequences. Thai Immigration is getting serious. 

Quoting directly, from this article, again, Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com: "At the centre of many investigations is the issue of nominee structures. Under Thailand's Foreign Business Act, several sectors remain restricted to Thai majority ownership. However, for years, some foreign investors have operated businesses through arrangements where Thai nationals formally hold shares while effective control allegedly remains with foreigners. For a long time, these structures were widely tolerated in tourism driven areas because they fuelled economic growth, construction and foreign spending. That environment is now changing rapidly. Thai Authorities have intensified investigations into nominee businesses across Phuket, Samui, Phangan and Pattaya, particularly in tourism, hospitality, real estate and construction sectors. Government agencies have publicly described nominee structures as economic crimes that distort local markets, inflate property prices and reduce opportunities for Thai (correction) entrepreneurs. Recent investigations reportedly uncovered one Thai individual connected to 87 companies and one accounting office allegedly linked to 89 suspected shell companies. Authorities are also expanding the use of artificial intelligence systems to identify suspicious ownership patterns." 

So again, the two main things here are one, the Foreign Business Act - well there are three things going on here - usage of nominees per se, usage of nominee companies to own land - that's really a major concern by law enforcement,  and essentially utilizing corporations, corporate structures to effectively circumvent certain aspects of Thailand's laws on work authorization and restricted occupations. I think this crackdown is going to continue. If anything, I think it is possible it may intensify especially as we get going through the summer. I expect the cadence of these things as we start to kind of hit a new high season or going into sort of October - I always look at Canadian Thanksgiving as when sort of high season officially kicks off - but essentially as we start seeing a new high season come online, they tend to kind of not exactly want the headlines to be all about "oh, we are going after foreigners blah, blah, blah" so it seems to kind of abate going into high season, but we have got a long time coming before high season is back upon us again. I think there's plenty of time to see this intensify and again understand, it is not only about nominees, it is also about land holding and work authorization here in the Kingdom of Thailand.