PUBLISHED: 5 Feb 2025 at 08: 12
The Commerce Ministry has established a specific task force to combat phony business registrations and is developing a identification system to confirm business locations.
Speaking on Tuesday at Government House, Deputy Commerce MinisterNapintorn Srisanpangaddressed 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 soldiers to check over 900, 000 firms and 80, 000 people to identify their links to these legal companies”, he said.
Initial assessments revealed that 1, 159 constitutional institutions were linked to these people. 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 partnership, the AOC will even give titles from the HR03 listing to the Commerce Ministry every Tuesday, allowing for a one-day confirmation process before legal activity is pursued, said Mr Napintorn.
He added that the DBD is developing a new rule mandating individuals on the HR03 list linked to corporate registrations to personally verify their identities and provide statements about their business intentions.
” Their information will be monitored forwarded to law enforcement agencies. He stated that the public is currently being asked about this regulation, and it is anticipated to be finalized by the beginning of the month.
In cases where business owners use residential addresses without the owner’s permission, Mr. Napintorn reported that the ministry is developing an online verification system that will be launched in two weeks.
This tool will let property owners find out if their addresses have been used for corporate registrations and 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.