More than 1,000 Thai and foreign nationals have been rounded up in a joint operation by police and commerce ministry authorities for the use of Thai nominees by foreign businesses over the past few weeks, authorities said on Wednesday.
The investigations targeted 442 companies with more than 3.6 billion baht in circulation in 46 locations across the country, said Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB).
The police anti-economic crime division, a unit of the CIB, took part in the operation along with officials from the Department of Business Development (DBD) at the Ministry of Commerce, he said.
A total of 1,014 people were detained, including 714 Thais, 258 Chinese, 21 Malaysians, four Cambodians, four Vietnamese, three Britons, three Germans, two Japanese, two Myanmar nationals, one American, a Singaporean and one Kazakhstan national.
Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop said several of the businesses were registered by Thais who were proxies of foreign citizens, despite the businesses being reserved exclusively for Thai nationals.
These companies had property assets valued at 254 million baht, with confiscated documents showing that they had hired law or accounting firms to handle their registration.
Authorities also uncovered warehouses storing products, many of which were prohibited for import, and discovered some businesses involved in currency trading, said the CIB chief.
Some of the others were registered as fronts to launder money without doing any business, said Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop.
Deputy Commerce Minister Napintorn Srisanpang said the joint operation followed an agreement by the police and the DBD in early November to investigate Thai nominees
He urged Thai nationals acting as proxies to come forward and report to authorities to earn themselves a chance to be treated as witnesses. He said any lawyers or accountants involved would be reported to professional regulatory bodies.
Deputy police chief Thatchai Pitaneelabutr said the use of Thai proxies has harmed the economy and posed a threat to national security, especially when these firms are operated by call-centre or drug gangs.