Police have busted a Chinese-run network that used Thai nominees to illegally control 33 luxury villas in Bangkok worth over 1.275 billion baht (US$35 million).
The Central Investigation Bureau’s Economic Crime Suppression Division raided five luxury housing estates in the Phatthanakan and Krungthep Kreetha areas after receiving tip-offs that Chinese nationals were secretly owning and renting out the properties to fellow citizens.
Investigators found the group had set up 33 shell companies to buy the villas across three housing estates. Police allege the scheme was masterminded by a Chinese national who used his Thai girlfriend, a bakery sales clerk, and her mother, a rubber farmer, as front-company nominees. Officers said the Chinese suspects supplied all the capital for company registrations and property purchases, with a local law firm and an accounting company allegedly helping process the paperwork.
Whenever a Chinese client wanted to buy a villa, the network would reportedly restructure a shell company and appoint the buyer as a shareholder or director, granting them de facto ownership while sidestepping foreign ownership laws. Other properties were managed by a separate Chinese-backed nominee agency that handled rentals and sales.
During the raids, officers seized three land title deeds, 30 signed blank share-transfer agreements, 15 passports of various nationalities, electronic devices, corporate documents, and around 1.4 million baht (US$38,000) in cash. Police are now tracing the financial trails to expand the investigation.
Officers plan to press charges against 21 suspects, comprising four Thai nationals and 17 Chinese nationals, for nominee-related offences under the Foreign Business Act and the Land Code.
In another separate incident, Phuket officials raided five hotels on July 23 as part of a nationwide crackdown, finding all were operating without licences and arresting two business operators from properties in Kathu and Thalang districts. The Phuket Provincial Administration inspected hotels in Mueang Phuket, Kathu and Thalang, uncovering unlicensed operations ranging from 45 to 246 rooms. Investigators are also examining whether some properties used nominee shareholding structures, including one hotel registered as 49% Russian-owned. The two arrested operators face charges under the Hotel Act (2004), carrying up to 1 year in prison and fines of US$593 (20,000 baht). The investigation into ownership and financial records continues.
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