– National police chief Pol. Gen. Samran Nualma led more than 100 officers on Saturday, October 10th, in the eighth phase of the ongoing foreign nominee crackdown, searching 17 locations at four luxury housing estates in Bangkok.
– Investigators say 94 houses on more than 33 rai, held through 95 companies, are worth more than 6 billion baht. Eighty-six foreign arrest warrants were issued. Eleven people were initially detained: 10 Chinese and one American.
– Several of those arrested are wanted in China or on Thai warrants, including a man police identified as Chao, sought over a 2018 triple murder tied to online gambling. AMLO is examining the money.
– Police said the raids are not a block on lawful foreign investment. They are focused at structures that use Thai shareholders to hold land foreigners cannot own directly.
Bangkok police raided multiple addresses at four luxury housing estates on Saturday in the eighth phase of a national campaign against foreign nominee companies, arresting 11 foreign nationals from America and China, issuing 86 warrants for foreign nationals, and placing more than 6 billion baht in 94 homes and land under investigation. One Chinese suspect arrested today is a fugitive accused of a triple homicide in China and multiple others were wanted for other crimes.
Pol. Gen. Samran Nualma, commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police, led the operation with Pol. Lt. Gen. Noppasin Pulsawat, commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, and Pol. Lt. Gen. Siam Boonsom of the Metropolitan Police Bureau. Officers searched developments in Bang Na–Suan Luang, Bang Na–Outer Ring Road, Rama 9–Srinakarin and Krungthep Kreetha, working with the Department of Business Development, the Department of Lands and the Revenue Department.
The inquiry covers 94 houses on more than 33 rai, held through 95 companies that police say used Thai nominee shareholders. The properties are valued at more than 6 billion baht. Investigators have identified 96 suspects in 95 cases and issued 86 warrants for foreign nationals. The 11 people arrested on the day were 10 Chinese nationals and one American.
Police said several of the people they wanted are already sought for other crimes. Mr. Chao, who held Chinese and Cambodian passports, is wanted in China over a triple murder on the 30th of January 2018 in Ulanhot, which investigators linked to an online gambling dispute. He told officers through an interpreter that he fled to Cambodia, paid contacts in Phnom Penh for a Cambodian passport, travelled to Sri Lanka and then entered Thailand during the Covid period, using the Cambodian passport dozens of times. He said he bought a house in 2022 for 43 million baht in cash after an agent at the estate introduced him to a company that arranged the purchase, and that he did not know the Thai shareholders. Police are also looking at possible links to scam operations in Myawaddy and Shwe Kokko in Myanmar and in Sihanoukville. Chao declined to answer questions about whether he had run a scam office in Myawaddy.
Other named suspects include Mr. Chen, who held Chinese, Turkish and Cambodian passports and is wanted in China over fraud and illegal cross-border transport of people in a 2024 case in Lishui, Zhejiang, and Mr. Jiang, who held Chinese and St Kitts and Nevis passports and is wanted over alleged online fraud in Tunzhou, Henan.
Police said the two were business partners in companies holding houses in Krungthep Kreetha. Liu was linked to a company in the Rama 9–Srinakarin estate and is wanted in China over online fraud. Bai was tied to a Krungthep Kreetha company and is sought internationally over organised crime and online fraud. Huang, a partner in a Bang Na–Outer Ring Road company, was wanted under a Phra Khanong Criminal Court warrant for alleged customs offences, secret-society involvement, and unlawful landholding by a foreigner.
The structure police describe is the standard nominee shape. Foreigners generally cannot own land in Thailand in their own names. Buyers were referred to law firms or intermediaries that set up companies with 51 percent Thai and 49 percent foreign shareholding, while investigators say some of the Thai shareholders put in no real money and had no real role. One Thai shareholder linked to Chao’s company told police he had applied for an online loan in 2022, handed over his identity documents, and later found his name on a company that a warrant valued at 400 million baht in shares.
Officers have identified 156 Thai nationals who may have acted as nominees. Some, police said, appear to have had their documents used without understanding the result. Others are being questioned as possible willing fronts. Eight law firms or intermediary offices, in areas including Ram Inthra, Saphan Sung and Bang Phli, are under review for arranging the companies. Samran said proceedings had already been started against firms suspected of supporting the offences, and that well-known names were still being checked.
Three or four houses in the Rama 9–Srinakarin estate were rented at 350,000 baht a month, with others at 50,000 and 40,000 baht. Rent had not been collected for three to five months in some cases. Samran said some owners appeared to have watched earlier phases of the crackdown and left Thailand before this one. Empty houses and unpaid rent were part of what officers found.
The Anti-Money Laundering Office joined because of the sums. Homes and land stay under examination while ownership, money trails and the role of each Thai shareholder are sorted. Police said they will expand the search to other luxury estates in Bangkok, especially cash purchases tied to online gambling, scam networks or odd company structures, and will pursue agents, nominee shareholders and any officials involved.
This is the eighth phase of the national nominee campaign. Police said earlier phases had already examined more than 297 companies and produced 238 warrants. The same drive has run through tourist provinces. In July the Chonburi governor led raids on five Pattaya and Jomtien pool-villa projects suspected of Chinese nominee ownership and illegal hotel use, and flagged 349 other local businesses and land parcels for review.
The same week the prime minister rejected claims of a Chinese land grab in the Eastern Economic Corridor and said nominee laws would be enforced.
In September deputy interior minister figures put more than 11,000 companies under suspicion, with land tied to the wider file estimated at about 85 billion baht.
Thai land law is the hard line underneath the raids. Foreign individuals cannot hold freehold land except in narrow cases, such as certain investment privileges or inheritance with conditions. A Thai company can hold land, but if the Thai shareholders are only names and the foreigner controls the company, the structure is a nominee offence under the Foreign Business Act and related land rules. Penalties for the Thai nominee and the foreign principal can include imprisonment, fines, deportation, and forced sale of the land. Police and the commerce ministry have said the campaign is designed at illegal structures, not at foreign investors who buy through lawful channels.