NationThailand-May 8
Thailand’s Commerce Ministry is intensifying efforts to crack down on foreign nominee businesses, launching expanded investigations into companies suspected of using Thai shareholders to circumvent restrictions under the Foreign Business Act. The Department of Business Development (DBD) said the move aims to improve transparency and prevent foreign operators from exploiting legal loopholes to avoid state oversight. Authorities are dividing the investigation into two major categories based on foreign shareholding structures. The first category focuses on nominee arrangements involving companies where foreign shareholders hold between 0.01% and 49.99% of shares. Officials said Thailand currently has around 980,000 registered legal entities, including 118,016 companies with foreign shareholders within that range. Investigators have identified approximately 53,000 potentially risky corporate links and referred cases to relevant agencies for further checks. Around 2,000 mule bank accounts linked to legal entities were also uncovered. Although some businesses are legitimate joint ventures between Thai and foreign investors, officials believe many use Thai nationals as proxy shareholders, distorting market competition and harming the economy. The DBD has introduced stricter rules requiring verification of Thai shareholders’ funding sources in companies where foreigners own less than 50% but hold director positions, a structure considered high risk for nominee activity. Investigators are checking Thai shareholders’ capital sources through bank statements before forwarding information to the Central Investigation Bureau, which examines whether all partners genuinely invested and paid for their shares. Authorities identified six sectors viewed as especially vulnerable to nominee practices: tourism and related businesses, land trading and property businesses, E-commerce, logistics and warehousing, hotels and resort, agriculture-related businesses and General construction. The provinces with the highest concentrations of suspected nominee activity include Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, Surat Thani, Phuket and Krabi. Read more at:
