Thai police raided four luxury housing estates in Bangkok on Oct. 10, targeting 94 homes worth more than 6 billion baht (YS$179 million) allegedly held for foreigners through Thai nominees.
Officers arrested 11 suspects, 10 Chinese nationals and one American, and held 86 arrest warrants for foreign nationals, Royal Thai Police chief Samran Nuanma told a media briefing, the Bangkok Post reported.
More than 100 officers searched 17 locations in the Bang Na-Suan Luang, Bang Na-Outer Ring Road, Rama 9-Srinakarin and Krungthep Kreetha areas. The raids were the eighth phase of a police campaign against foreign nominee networks.
The 94 houses, on more than 33 rai (5.3 hectares) of land, were held through 95 companies allegedly set up with Thai nominees, Khaosod English reported. Police identified 96 suspects in 95 cases, and the Anti-Money Laundering Office joined the operation because of the value of the assets.
Foreigners generally cannot own land in Thailand. Under the structure investigators described, Thai shareholders held 51% of each company and foreign shareholders 49%, though some of the Thai shareholders had no real investment or involvement, The Nation reported.
The investigation began with information from the Chinese embassy about three suspects wanted in China. The first, identified by police as Chao, holds Chinese and Cambodian passports and is wanted over a murder in which three people died in Ulanhot, Inner Mongolia, on Jan. 30, 2018, MGR Online reported.
Police said Chao first entered Thailand in 2017 and, after the killings, went to Cambodia and paid about $85,000 for a Cambodian passport. He told police he then traveled to Sri Lanka and entered Thailand on the Cambodian passport during the Covid-19 pandemic, going in and out of the country dozens of times.
Police said he is a partner in a company holding a house in the Rama 9-Srinakarin estate. He told investigators he paid 43 million baht ($1.28 million) in cash for his house in 2022 and did not know who the Thai shareholders were.
Police said he admitted links to online gambling operations in Myawaddy and Shwe Kokko in Myanmar, though he declined to say whether he ran a scam office in Myawaddy.
The two other suspects flagged by the embassy, Gui and Jian, were partners in companies holding houses in the Krungthep Kreetha estate, where properties are priced at 77-98 million baht, the Bangkok Post reported. Both were arrested under warrants.
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Royal Thai Police chief Samran Nuanma (R) and an investigator question a Chinese suspect after raids on 17 locations in Bangkok, Oct. 10, 2026. Photo courtesy of Provincial Police Region 2 |
Gui, who holds Chinese, Turkish and Cambodian passports, is wanted for fraud and illegally moving people across borders in Zhejiang Province in April 2024. Jian, who holds Chinese and St. Kitts and Nevis passports, is wanted over online fraud in Henan Province in December 2024.
Three more company partners are wanted. Lin and Bai, both Chinese, face Interpol Red Notices over alleged roles in organized online fraud groups, issued by authorities in Bengbu in Anhui Province and Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, respectively.
Huang, a Chinese partner in a company holding property in the Bang Na-Outer Ring Road estate, is wanted under a Phra Khanong Criminal Court warrant on charges including customs offenses, involvement in a secret society and unlawful land ownership by a foreigner, the Bangkok Post reported.
Police identified 156 Thai nationals who may have acted as nominees. Several said they had handed over copies of their ID cards and house registration papers to apply for online loans, only to find law firms had allegedly used them to register companies in their names. One, a shareholder in a company linked to Chao, learned of it from an arrest warrant tying them to shares worth 400 million baht, The Nation reported. Police said those unwittingly involved would be treated fairly.
Investigators have identified eight law firms or intermediary firms suspected of setting up the companies and have begun proceedings against them, Khaosod English reported. Asked whether prominent lawyers were involved, Samran said investigators were still checking.
Samran said the suspects were not genuinely investing in Thailand but were allegedly using the country as a refuge and a place to hold assets. Some of the houses were rented out for as much as 350,000 baht a month, while others stood empty, with some owners believed to have fled Thailand after earlier phases of the crackdown.
The previous seven phases covered 297 companies and 309 plots of land worth about 3 billion baht, leading to 238 arrest warrants and 118 arrests, MGR Online reported. Police are coordinating with Chinese authorities and plan to extend the investigation to other luxury developments in Bangkok.