Illegal foreign-run businesses to be targetted

[CheshireTom 1,377]

It's the time of the year for promotions and new jobs for Thailand's finest ...

 

 

DSI to crack down on illegal foreign-run businesses

 

The Nation on Sunday January 1, 2012 1:00 am

Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Tharit Pengdit said yesterday his office would crack down on foreigners using Thais as nominees to buy land and run businesses from which they are legally excluded, while his deputy Narat Sawettanan said 536 websites had been shut down since December 13 for allegedly having lese majeste content.

 

Tharit said many foreigners were using Thai nationals as nominees to run businesses prohibited for non-Thais under the Foreign Business Act 1999. The businesses include logging, newspapers and property development. He said the DSI was cracking down on foreign gangsters encroaching on forestland and running property projects as well as extorting others in Koh Samui, Pattaya City and other tourists cities, while human traffickers had brought Chinese prostitutes into Thailand. Claiming foreign gangsters aimed to launder money in Thailand-based businesses before transferring it offshore, Tharit said the DSI would be more proactive in going after them before Thailand entered the Asean Economic Community in 2015. He urged members of the public to alert the DSI to any suspicious activities.

Edited January 1, 2012 by CheshireTom

[papillon 695]

. He urged members of the public to alert the DSI to any suspicious activities.

 

I hope Chivas doesn't see this thread.

[chatkeow 28]

Yeah I've been right busy this morning Paps !!!

 

Those crackdowns get rolled out every year under some guise or another.

 

Within a week all will be forgotten as usual.....

[bigmick 839]

Yeah I've been right busy this morning Paps !!!

 

Those crackdowns get rolled out every year under some guise or another.

 

Within a week all will be forgotten as usual.....

 

Exactly right, i am almost certain last years was exactly the same script aswell and the year before. It will all be forgotten within 24 hours

[Siam Sam 964]

Keeping up appearances.

[Gary 4,066]

It is my opinion that one day some powerful politician is going to wake up with a hard on and vow revenge on farangs for one reason or another. Thousands of farangs control property through these bogus companies. Better them than me. I like to sleep well at night and wouldn't like the feeling of impending doom.

 

Buy a condo in your name and sleep well. If you are planning to get married to a Thai national, buy it BEFORE you marry her and she won't be able to touch it if the relationship goes pear shaped. Same advice for a vehicle. Anything bought after you are married will be marital property and it is quite likely you will lose that property if she wants it.

 

And yes, I have bought property in my wife's name and am perfectly prepared to walk away from it all if things go bad. She has put up with me for the past seven years so I feel she has earned everything I bought her.

[biggles 509]

"He said the DSI was cracking down on foreign gangsters encroaching on forestland "

 

But we wont do anything about the crooked thai politicians and gangsters doing exactly the same thing,...... they pay us off..

[Gary 4,066]

The crooked politicians are smarter than that. The sell the government owned land to stupid farangs and walk away with a pocket full of money and no risk. The politicians ARE the gangsters. Very obvious and blatant and nothing is done about it. The system is that you don't tell on me and I won't tell on you.

[joekicker 53]

But we wont do anything about the crooked thai politicians and gangsters doing exactly the same thing,...... they pay us off..

 

Actually, they just knocked down several resorts, and will be doing quite a few more. It was in the papers, with pictures and all.

 

.

[Siam Sam 964]

Buy a condo in your name and sleep well. If you are planning to get married to a Thai national, buy it BEFORE you marry her and she won't be able to touch it if the relationship goes pear shaped. Same advice for a vehicle. Anything bought after you are married will be marital property and it is quite likely you will lose that property if she wants it.

 

So if we buy a condo together and then things turn sour I will lose it? I was under the impression that I would be entitled to half of it?

[bigmick 839]

So if we buy a condo together and then things turn sour I will lose it? I was under the impression that I would be entitled to half of it?

 

Yes you are entitled to half if you buy it together while married, a judge would tell you both to sell it and split the money 50/50 or you can pay her the 50% value and its all yours (easier to do that before it goes to court)

[Gary 4,066]

Why get half when you can get it all? I have seen farangs who have gone to court and were awarded half but they never received anything. A thirty year lease is pretty solid EXCEPT if the lease is from your wife. Same with a lifetime usufruct.

[Idefix 2,275]

Yes you are entitled to half if you buy it together while married, a judge would tell you both to sell it and split the money 50/50 or ...

 

Why only half?

I think we had this discussion a few months ago (or was it on an other forum?) and one member gave his own experience: from what I remember, he bought a condo in his name a few months after he maried a Thai lady. Things turned wrong after 2 years and the lady - clearly pushed by her family - asked for everything they have. The guy got a layer, went in court, and because the condo was bought in his name, with all money coming from an account in his name in his country, and because the lady could not prove she had or earned any money before he bought it, the judge decided that the condo was 100% to the falang . She just got 50% of what they bought during the mariage except the condo: TV, furniture, car, ...

We get more and more exemples of judgement a lot of more favorable to falang than they used to be.

It depends...

[chatkeow 28]

So if we buy a condo together and then things turn sour I will lose it? I was under the impression that I would be entitled to half of it?

 

Sam

 

When I officially divorced from Ratree in May 2008 we had a house to divi up....

 

It was made most clear to me that the best way to get anything back over time was to be polite and nice as any court order wasn't worth the paper it was written on.....

 

Its been a nightmare since and have received around 200,000 of the 1.5 million I'm owed...

 

If I had gone to court with the loss of face involved for her its an absolute certainty I would never have got anything..

Edited January 3, 2012 by chatkeow

[joekicker 53]

We get more and more exemples of judgement a lot of more favorable to falang than they used to be.

 

What did it used to be?

 

It depends...

 

It always did. You have one hearsay example, no history, no actual law. But "It depends" is pretty safe. Sort of like anywhere else. Depends on the case, depends on the judge, depends on the time, depends on the lawyers, depends on a lot.

 

 

It was made most clear to me that the best way to get anything back over time was to be polite and nice as any court order wasn't worth the paper it was written on.....

 

About right. You go to a civil court, where the decision is made and judgement given. But a CIVIL court has no physical enforcement. To get enforcement, you have to go to a criminal court. It's highly unlikely an agreed divorce settlement would get before a criminal court at all. All very Catch-22, so "be nice" is a good advice.

 

.

Edited January 3, 2012 by joekicker

[MM 6,562]

It was made most clear to me that the best way to get anything back over time was to be polite and nice as any court order wasn't worth the paper it was written on.....

 

That's the same tactic I followed when I divorced my farang wife in the states. We stayed out of court and settled everything by consensus. It's not just a good way of dealing with the situation in Thailand. It works other places too.

[Siam Sam 964]

Sam

 

When I officially divorced from Ratree in May 2008 we had a house to divi up....

 

It was made most clear to me that the best way to get anything back over time was to be polite and nice as any court order wasn't worth the paper it was written on.....

 

Its been a nightmare since and have received around 200,000 of the 1.5 million I'm owed...

 

If I had gone to court with the loss of face involved for her its an absolute certainty I would never have got anything..

 

As far as I'm aware, it's completely different when it comes to houses and condos and the law when (and if) you split from your Thai wife, exactly why I don't want to buy a house in the first place. For one thing, you can't have the house entirely in your name because it sits on LAND so therefore it has to be 51% owned by a Thai person, i.e your wife. 51% is a majority and exactly the reason why the Thais do this because they know a farang will get nothing from a court IF it even gets that far.

 

Blocks of condos work on the same principle, e.g only 49% of the condos in any one block can be foreign owned. However, if you are a foreigner and you buy one you can put it 100% in your name if you are clever enough to do so.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Siam Sam

[chatkeow 28]

As far as I'm aware, it's completely different when it comes to houses and condos and the law when (and if) you split from your Thai wife, exactly why I don't want to buy a house in the first place. For one thing, you can't have the house entirely in your name because it sits on LAND so therefore it has to be 51% owned by a Thai person, i.e your wife. 51% is a majority and exactly the reason why the Thais do this because they know a farang will get nothing from a court IF it even gets that far.

 

Blocks of condos work on the same principle, e.g only 49% of the condos in any one block can be foreign owned. However, if you are a foreigner and you buy one you can put it 100% in your name if you are clever enough to do so.

 

Agree condo route is the way to go......

 

Point I was making was that thai lawyers indicated that if I fought for what was mine, I would likely end up with nothing as a court order is virtually unenforcable along the lines of JK's previous comments

[m_holmes 93]

Don't worry about any of that. "Bad-Luck" and her gang are too busy trying to get Taksin back to Thailand to worry about anything like floods, the economy or the rule of law.

 

Quite honestly, this time is probably the best time in years to engage in any kind of criminal activity in Thailand.

[Gary 4,066]

Don't worry about any of that. "Bad-Luck" and her gang are too busy trying to get Taksin back to Thailand to worry about anything like floods, the economy or the rule of law.

 

Quite honestly, this time is probably the best time in years to engage in any kind of criminal activity in Thailand.

 

From your post it appears to me that you are one of the naive farangs who thinks one party of politicians is more honest than another party. The fact is that they are all mostly corrupt and there is very little difference between any of them. Thaksin was no better or worse than the rest of the thieves. As long as Thai people respect wealth more than principles, nothing is going to change. Wealthy people are respected regardless of how they got their money.

[frankie8 21]

From your post it appears to me that you are one of the naive farangs who thinks one party of politicians is more honest than another party. The fact is that they are all mostly corrupt and there is very little difference between any of them. Thaksin was no better or worse than the rest of the thieves. As long as Thai people respect wealth more than principles, nothing is going to change. Wealthy people are respected regardless of how they got their money.

 

very true!and what is a little strange to me is how quickly they spot them!

i live in a hotel with very tight security for girls going in and out,but when my thai friend who happens to be very well of walks up to my room,

no one ever asks or even implies anything anytime?...its not like she walks around all blinged up or anything...

i find it to be a very interesting thing...the thais and their 6th sense!

[m_holmes 93]

From your post it appears to me that you are one of the naive farangs who thinks one party of politicians is more honest than another party.

 

Yes what a clever farang you are. Everybody is corrupt so why vote? Unfortunately, your POV has consequences. Those consequences are seen in the US now, where 50% of the population is either in poverty or working for poverty level wages. Elections matter, and unfortunately with so many people having the same view as you, it makes the job of those who have corrupted the system, much easier.

 

Again, well done

[joekicker 53]

i find it to be a very interesting thing...the thais and their 6th sense!

 

You think that in reality it is impossible for the desk clerk to figure out, rather quickly and accurately, that there is a difference between the girls who are checked and your friend who is not? There is absolutely no difference to be seen, and they are trusting their paranormal skills -- which is always correct, mind you, but still is obviously a sixth sense and has no logic or intelligence behind it?

 

See, that kind of.... well, I don't want to call it "thinking" I call it blindness or ignorance, but it is why they check old ladies' wheelchairs and grope children at the airports. Which *I* think is not just stupid but offensive, even though I'm not an old lady, don't have a wheelchair, and no longer have a young child who can be groped. Because, yeah, even though there never has been a terrorist caught at the airports, *I* can tell the difference between an old lady in a wheelchair and a possible terrorist who should be where the inspecting assets are directed.

 

 

Yes what a clever farang you are. Everybody is corrupt so why vote? Unfortunately, your POV has consequences.

 

I don't actually get the point here. Are you saying that endemic corruption does NOT exist in Thailand? That all parties feed at precisely, exactly the same trough in exactly the same manner? Or what?

 

.

Edited January 8, 2012 by joekicker

[m_holmes 93]

 

I don't actually get the point here. Are you saying that endemic corruption does NOT exist in Thailand? That all parties feed at precisely, exactly the same trough in exactly the same manner? Or what?

 

.

 

My point is that there are consequences to elections. It is not correct to conclude that it doesn't matter whom the electorate votes for. In the case of Thailand, this country went from having the most qualified person in ASEAN running a country to the least qualified in one election. Sure everyone is corrupt to some degree, much of that is a reflection of the electorate, but the trajectory of politics in any country is affected by the people elected to office.

 

Take the United States, does anyone really believe that a Ron Paul or Ralph Nader would put the country on the same political trajectory as the other candidates? Elections matter; that is why so many of our ancestors fought and died to secure them for themselves (and us).

 

Now, back to the booze and pussy.

[joekicker 53]

Now, back to the booze and pussy.

 

Good idea. You never did discuss the subject, which was endemic corruption.

 

.