The Department of Business Development (DBD) has joined forces with the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to sweep out foreign nominee companies seizing tourism businesses. The pilot project covers Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, scanning 11,426 companies, with plans to expand the effort to Phuket and Pattaya, while pushing to categorize offenses as money laundering cases.
Mr. Poonphong Nainaphakorn, Director-General of the Department of Business Development (DBD), Ministry of Commerce, revealed that the department has consulted with Pol. Lt. Col. Yuttana Praedam, Director-General of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), regarding cooperation to prevent and suppress nominee companies in Thailand. After finding many foreign-operated businesses in major tourist areas displaying nominee company characteristics through scanning company data in various tourist provinces, it became clear that many nominee companies exist in diverse forms. They have thus jointly planned a rigorous investigation focusing initially on two famous islands: Koh Phangan and Koh Samui in Surat Thani Province. This action responds to complaints from locals and businesses about certain foreign individuals or groups forming cliques to improperly exploit Thai resources, showing disregard for the law and creating social burdens, causing community frustration.
The approach will involve categorizing the 11,426 companies identified with foreign shareholders on the two islands into high, medium, and low likelihood of being nominee companies, setting inspection timelines starting with those most likely nominees. Inspections will proceed in order, but if citizen complaints clearly indicate nominee behavior, a nominee suppression team will be dispatched immediately for investigation. Relevant partner agencies will be coordinated to jointly inspect, strictly enforcing each agency’s laws. This will ensure thorough nominee company investigations and enable prosecution on multiple fronts, such as tourism violations through the Tourism Department, labor issues via the Department of Labor Protection and Welfare, and tax matters through the Revenue Department.
Besides the southern pilot areas, the Department of Business Development plans to expand investigations to other key tourist provinces with high proportions of foreign joint venture companies, including:
Hua Hin with 2,081 companies (51.24%).
Phuket with 11,626 companies (39.22%).
Krabi with 749 companies (20.88%).
Phang Nga with 346 companies (20.53%).
“Nominee companies are a national problem. Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Anutin Charnvirakul has directly ordered this issue to be completely resolved. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Supachai Sutthampan has emphasized prevention and suppression. So far, some investigations and arrests of suspected nominee companies on Koh Phangan have been made, such as an accounting firm whose owner holds shares in 66 companies, using 89 buildings and residences as company offices. Foreign nominee ownership of real estate has been investigated, and information on 34 companies in real estate and tourism businesses on Koh Samui with assets exceeding 100 million baht has been sent to the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) for financial trail examination. Moving forward, a rigorous joint inspection with DSI will be conducted on Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, and other tourist provinces,” Mr. Poonphong said.
However, to prevent the registration of legal entities that could be used as nominee companies, the department is consulting with the Thai Bankers’ Association to review investments by Thai shareholders in companies with foreign participation. Clarity on which groups will be examined is expected next week. Since measures were introduced on 1 Jan 2026 to tighten company registration by requiring financial proof and stricter controls on individuals listed in HR-03 and state welfare cards, nominee company registrations have dropped by 60%. Further measures implemented on 1 Apr 2026 require shareholders to confirm actual investment and payment, reducing nominee registrations by 75%. Additional measures are needed to close loopholes.
Pol. Lt. Col. Yuttana Praedam, Director-General of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), said the DSI has continuously cooperated with the Department of Business Development to suppress nominee companies. So far, they have focused on businesses operating without permission under the annex of the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 (1999) valued over 100 million baht and significant cases. They proposed to the Special Case Committee to classify these as special cases for deeper and broader investigation. Recently, the AMLO is preparing to propose legislation classifying nominee offenses as predicate crimes for money laundering, which will improve suppression efficiency by enabling financial trail investigations and asset seizures related to offenses.
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