Task force targets phoney corporate registrations
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Task force targets phoney corporate registrations

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Napintorn Srisanpang
Napintorn Srisanpang

The Commerce Ministry has formed a special task force to tackle fraudulent corporate registrations and is developing a verification system to authenticate business locations.

Speaking on Tuesday at Government House, Deputy Commerce Minister Napintorn Srisanpang addressed concerns that criminals have increasingly registered mule accounts under legal entities to gain credibility and defraud the public.

He said his ministry has formed a special task force, whose members include Department of Internal Trade (DIT) deputy director-general Jittakorn Wongkhetkorn, to deal with the issue.

According to Mr Napintorn, the task force's first mission involves coordinating with the Digital Economy and Society Ministry's Anti-Online Crime Operation Center (AOC) to obtain the HR03 list of individuals with criminal backgrounds.

"This information will allow officers to investigate over 900,000 companies and 80,000 individuals to determine their connections to these legal entities," he said.

Preliminary checks revealed that 1,159 legal entities were linked to these individuals. The Department of Business Development (DBD) has forwarded these findings to relevant agencies, including the Royal Thai Police (RTP), the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), for further investigation.

As part of the collaboration, the AOC will also send names from the HR03 list to the Commerce Ministry every Tuesday, allowing for a one-day verification process before legal action is pursued, said Mr Napintorn.

He added that the DBD is drafting a new regulation requiring individuals on the HR03 list linked to corporate registrations to personally verify their identities and provide statements on their business intentions.

"Their details will be forwarded to law enforcement agencies for monitoring. This regulation is currently undergoing public consultation and is expected to be finalised by early next month," he said.

As for cases where corporate entities register using residential addresses without owner consent, Mr Napintorn said the ministry is developing an online verification system, which is expected to launch within two weeks.

This platform will allow property owners to check whether their addresses have been used for corporate registrations and to report unauthorised usage.

If unauthorised use is discovered, property owners can report it to the DBD via its 1570 hotline. Offenders in such cases may face up to three years in prison, said Mr Napintorn.

Additionally, new business registrations and relocation requests will require supporting documents, including the property owner's consent letter.

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